Area’s June Gloom Still Hovering in August

The June gloom that has returned to the Los Angeles area the past few days, dropping temperatures well below normal and scattering a few light showers, is expected to continue through Wednesday.

Skies remained cloudy along the coast Monday, with only partial afternoon clearing in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. Forecasters said the weather should remain gray and dank for a few days, with gradually clearer skies and higher temperatures toward the end of the week.

The thermometer topped out at 75 degrees in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, 10 degrees below the normal high of 85 and far below the record of 106, set in 1885.

It was even cooler at the beaches, with highs of 66 in Malibu, 67 at the Santa Monica Pier, 68 in Newport Beach and 69 in Avalon.

Misty morning sprinkles were reported across the Southland, with the heaviest showers in the foothills of the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains.

“What we’re having is mid-June weather pattern in the middle of August,” said Chris Stein, a meteorological technician with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “Normally, this is the warmest, driest part of the year.”

Stein said a trough of low pressure has strayed down into Southern California from the north, drawing in a deep layer of cool, moist air from the Pacific. He said that when this 4,000-foot-thick layer of clouds collides with the mountains that ring the Los Angeles Basin, the moisture condenses, falling as light rain.

The low-pressure trough is expected to begin dissipating by Thursday, replaced by a weak ridge of high pressure. With the ridge in place, the onshore flow of marine air will weaken, the clouds will retreat to the coastline, and temperatures will start to climb.