Gloom in full bloom

WEATHER TIDBITS

The first tropical storm of the season is tracking at a rapid pace to

the west, situated about 1,000 miles southwest of the tip of Baja,

not affecting our weather or surf.

Aleeda formed on May 21, about 1,100 miles south southeast of the

tip of Baja and hurried due west (270 degrees). When they form that

far down there, they usually do trek to the west, especially this

early in the season.

This storm marks the fourth consecutive year that a spinner was

born in May, way early in the season.

Well, we were able to salvage one day out of the three day

Memorial weekend, Saturday was a fraud and Monday was a beauty.

Now it’s Tuesday and the gloom season is in full swing. As of noon

we’re socked in, it’s only 64 degrees, the ceiling is 300 feet and

the surface air visibility is less than a mile. Just over the hill

it’s already 86 degrees. It’s 106 degrees in Palm Springs.

That’s why it’s not clearing here at the beach.

There’s a very late in the season storm centered 800 miles west of

Oregon and Washington. It’s a strong one for this late in the year

(981 millibars).

It should make landfall in a couple days, soaking the Pacific

Northwest. We won’t see any weather from it but a healthy northwest

swell will be showing up in a couple days, teaming up with a hefty

Southern Hemisphere pulse that is head high today and still

increasing, so south and west facing beaches should be firing.

Most of us haven’t put our full wet suits in the closet to rest

yet, as the waters are taking their sweet time in warming up -- it’s

still only 59 to 61 degrees!

Thanks again to Will Pennartz at the Laguna Surf Gallery for

firstly, inviting your Tidbitter, a rookie in the art world, to be on

the same walls as the masters; and secondly, for the masters to be on

a wall with the “new guy.”

Stay tuned!

* DENNIS McTIGHE is a Laguna Beach resident. He earned a

bachelor’s in earth sciences from UC San Diego and was a U.S. Air

Force weather forecaster.