Gloom and hurricane surf hit the coast

WEATHER TIDBITS

As it turns out, June was nice and July has been the gloomy month.

We got it all backward this time around.

However, today is Monday and you guessed it, the sun had made an

early appearance and is staying out this time!

Of course the weekend was a write-off. It was total gloom and

drizzle at noon on Saturday.

Now it’s Monday, the skies are bright blue and the water’s clear

and warm. So your Tidbitter just had to write this column down at his

St. Ann’s Beach office.

That’s why I hibernate on weekends, ‘cause I know they’ll be

cloudy, gloomy and super crowded and grumpy, so I hide.

Our first visible sunrise of the summer (Tuesday) got your

Tidbitter fired up real early. Of course, it’s a weekday. Never

fails!

A serious wave maker is in our surf window. Hurricane Douglas has

blown up into a large Category No. 3 with sustained winds of 115 mph

with gusts up to 130!

He’s creeping along at eight mph toward the Northwest, setting the

stage for overhead to double overhead. It is our first serious swell

since late January.

With a high pressure cell centered over the four corners area, the

dynamics are in place for tropical air to flow into mountain and

desert regions, meaning higher humidity and warm nights. Like a real

summer should be!

Did your Tidbit Guy mention that he not only tries to predict

weather, he’s now trying to paint it too!

I am currently working on three murals here in town.

One’s at Taco Loco, then there’s one at Costa Azul and finally at

St. Ann’s beach public access stairs. You can view energy in motion

-- there’s murals with huge thunderheads, stacks of huge waves to the

horizon, tornadoes, satellite maps of the Pacific Rim, with Category

Five Hurricanes off Mexico, typhoons off China, roaring 40s comma

clouds in the So. Hemisphere and big ol’ storms in the Gulf of

Alaska, and night scenes with a full moon shimmering on the water

with all the constellations dancing across the midnight blue sky. Go

check ‘em out!

* DENNIS McTIGHE is a Laguna Beach resident. He earned a B.S. in

Earth Sciences from UCSD and was a USAF weatherman at Hickman AFB,

Hawaii.