Low Overhead

The annual “June gloom” weather is already hovering above coastal areas, causing concern in the county’s tourist industry and prompting highway and harbor patrols to warn motorists and boaters to use extra caution.

“The weather has a great deal to do with tourism,” said Carol Lavender, executive director of the Greater Oxnard & Harbors Tourism Bureau. “May is traditionally not a very good month here. June is better. We still have the fog, but it isn’t as chilly.”

While hotel and motel owners in Oxnard can expect occupancy rates of about 70% in July and 75% in August, she said they barely reach 60% of capacity in May and June.

The fog does not keep people away from planned events, however.

Last weekend’s 14th annual California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard drew 62,000 people, according to Shelley Merrick, festival director.

The crowds came despite a small rainfall Saturday morning and what turned out to be an inaccurate prediction of more rain Sunday. “We feel [the weather] affected it a little bit,” Merrick said.

The fog and gloom have the biggest effect on motorists. CHP Officer Michael Condon said the fog often obscures a driver’s view beyond 50 feet.

CHP officers are more stringent about issuing speeding tickets.

“You don’t want to go any faster than an adequate reaction time to stop your vehicle in the case of an emergency,” Condon said.

Boat operators inside Ventura Harbor are advised to use radar when visibility is under a half-mile, according to Casey Culp, a Ventura Port District patrolman.

He added that operators with no radar often stay on shore. “There always is [danger] if you can’t see where you are going,” Culp said.

The speed limit is always 5 mph inside the harbor, he noted.

Low clouds and fog are common in coastal communities this time of year as weather patterns are stagnant, with no winter storms to move the clouds away, said National Weather Service meteorologist Vladimir Ryshko.

May and June have the highest average number of cloudy days at 36% and 38% respectively, he said. November is generally the clearest month of the year, with cloudy skies only 26% of the time.

Bill Clawson, executive director of the Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau, said the cloudy weather sometimes provides cool relief for people escaping the brutal inland heat, which often tops 100 degrees.

“This type of weather pattern is driven by inland heat,” he said. “That heat is exactly what drives people to the beach. They’re so relieved it’s cool.”

About 80% of people using California-based lodging at a given time are residents of this state, according to Clawson. Ventura’s 2,150 hotels and motel rooms generated $17.2 million in 1994. That figure rose to more than $20 million last year, he added.

Susan Koehler, director of sales and marketing for the Mandalay Beach Resort in Oxnard, noted that business is not as high in May as it is in July and August, but it is still solid.

“It’s 100 degrees in the [San Fernando] Valley, and people want to come to coastal areas,” she said.

Mandalay occupancy percentages range from the low 70s in May to the low 80s in July and August, Koehler said.

Ryshko said the area should begin to see hazy afternoon sunshine beginning Wednesday or Thursday, possibly lasting through the weekend.

“The way it is now, [the clouds] are not breaking up at all,” he said.

Beyond the next five to seven days, it is impossible to know how long the foggy mornings and evenings will last, however.

“We cannot make predictions that far out,” Ryshko said.