Warm waters here, storms coming

WEATHER TIDBITS

All the symptoms of a real summer are firmly in place.

We’ve had 70 degrees and above for ocean temps, nine days

consecutive.

Minimal stratus cover with generally clear viewing of the full

moon.

The dominant wind direction has been south to southwest negating

the stiff westerlies that make the water colder. Many days have seen

glassy surface conditions on the water.

I can’t remember a July with so much surf from the northwest.

Then on Sunday July 13 and Monday July 14 the coast was treated to

an actual northwest groundswell. It’s the first time your Tidbitter

has seen one of those in July and he’s been keeping track of weather

since late 1957.

The swell was a pretty steep one. It barely made it into our surf

window at 311 degrees, anything over 312 degrees we get blocked by

Point Conception.

The surprise source of that totally out-of-season event was a

healthy little low pressure (29.10 m.) which made it to about 1,000

to 1,200 miles west of Vancouver moving east / southeast out of the

Gulf of Alaska. A 29.10 low is abnormally strong for a summertime low

pressure in the Eastern Pacific.

Usually they’re about 29.70 at best.

The unusual spunkiness of the low plus it’s east/southeast

movement pushed the northwest fetch aimed right at California.

The Queen of the Coast saw beautiful head-high peelers with

70-degree water swamis. Thalia Street served up consistent 3- to

4-foot long, peeling rights, with generally sunny conditions with

little or no wind. Just an occasional mild southerly breeze.

Long sessions were the rule as the water was a balmy 71 degrees.

Even Howard Chapleau was trunking it!

Nights have been that wonderful balmy near-70-degrees up to

midnight.

Your Tidbitter has been getting by just fine with only a sheet for

coverage at night. I was using at least one blanket on a regular

basis the past four summers.

A total of five Eastern Pacific tropical storms have already

formed putting us slightly ahead of the curve in that department.

There’s even been a band of tropical moisture through here over the

past weekend.

Our desert and mountain regions are certainly way overdue for some

good solid thunderstorm production which has been next to nil since

‘98, with absolutely no storm activity last summer.

There needs to be at least five or six stormy periods during July

and August. Arizona has yet to see any thunderstorm activity and

we’re approaching mid-July. Normally it starts really coming on about

this time.

In a busy year these monsoonal storms can occur on almost a daily

basis and they can pile up some fairly healthy amounts of rain in a

short period of time. Sometimes up to three inches of rain in one

afternoon!

Usually it’s a half inch but, like I say, sometimes that freak

thunderstorm cloud will reach heights of 75,000 feet or more --

that’s when the heavy stuff happens.

The last time we here in Laguna had a real dandy thunderstorm was

way back on Friday, July 26, 1996.

Stay tuned!

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

bachelor’s in earth sciences from UCSD and was a U.S. Air Force

weather forecaster at Hickman Air Force Base, Hawaii.