Weather tidbits

Dennis McTighe

For starters, for the rest of this month, you’ll be able to see a

rarely seen sight in the cosmos. By checking out the western sky shortly

after sunset you can spot all six of our solar system’s visible planets

at the same time and in the same sector of space!

Just how rare is that planetary arrangement? The last time those

worlds were aligned like that was over 60 years ago and they won’t line

up that way again for another 37 years! Still not interested?

Well then how about this -- if you act right away we’ll also throw in

a comet free of charge! It’s the deal of a lifetime! Here’s what you’ll

get: starting just above the western horizon at twilight’s last gleaming

there’s little blue-green comet Iyeka-Ahang (this comet is actually best

viewed in the east before sunrise). A bit further up in the sky is a dim

Mercury.

One more notch up is the too-bright-to-miss Venus. Keep tilting your

head back and orange Mars comes into view. Next stop is yellow Saturn,

then it’s on to bright white Jupiter straight overhead. Add in the Earth

and your collection of visible planets is complete!

We should have a clear weather pattern with no marine layer to obscure

our view of this lineup.

That’s because the deserts have cooled off considerably (from 103

degrees down to 83 degrees) and the ocean warmed up from 57 degrees to 64

degrees.

It looks like this pattern could hold, but there is a deep,

low-pressure trough offshore that could cloud things up.

We’re still at 3.84 inches since last July 1 -- below the record dry

season of 4.30 inches set back in 1960-61. Last year this date we had

amassed 15.04 inches, the normal to date is 12.44 inches.

So far this month we’ve collected only .04 inches compared to the 1.2

inches that make up April’s normal.

Our wettest Aprils was 1958 with 6.02 inches.

Right now the East Coast is in the throes of a severe drought, plus it

just had its warmest winter of all time, only one day of snow in Boston

and New York City all winter!

And finally, one of our faithful readers posed this inquiry: “Mr.

Tidbit, with the impending El Nino, when can we expect our waters to warm

up to those wonderful El Nino readings?”

Dear Faithful Reader, not any time real soon, but I would venture to

guess around July or August at the latest we’ll see 75-degree water or

even a tad warmer.

Already the waters off Cabo are all the way up to 78 to 82 degrees

compared to a chilly 64-66 degrees at this time last year. After being

mired in 53- to 57-degree stuff since December, our water temps Monday

crept up to 62 degrees which is just about normal for late April.

Incidentally our water temp on this date in 1997 was a whopping 75

degrees! It would top out at 77 degrees several times that summer.

This year’s El Nino is kicking in a bit later than the last one.

Once that ocean does warm up it may stay warm through October.

* Dennis McTighe writes about the weather for the Coastline Pilot. If

you have comments or suggestions, call the paper at (949) 494-4321.