Weather Tidbits

Dennis McTighe

It’s so nice to shed the long pants, sweaters, shoes and socks -- back

to the unconfining board shorts, T-shirts and flops. Tuesday marked the

fifth-consecutive sunny morning, with a temp of 70 degrees at only 9:30

a.m.

A 5.2 shaker struck the town of Gilroy near San Jose at 9:30 p.m.

Monday.

No major damage, no injuries. We are so overdue down here it’s getting

scary. Not since the 7.3 in Joshua Tree on Oct 15, 1999 has there been a

quake more than 5.3 in Southern California. Look in the night Western sky

as soon as it gets dark and you’ll see Saturn, Mars, Venus and Jupiter

all lined up.

Tuesday saw the 3-day-old waxing crescent moon almost right on top of

Venus. Tuesday was the first food day at Thalia Street since late

January. That’s a heckuva long stretch, but nothing lasts forever, not

even flat spells. It’s just another chapter in the book of checks and

balances.

Sometimes, Thalia can be firing for days and weeks. This year just

isn’t it’s turn.

Maybe it’s J-Bay’s turn.

Another huge chunk of ice has broken off the Antarctic Shelf. This

time it’s 125-miles long -- last week’s chunk was the size of Orange

County. The one before that was the size of Rhode Island.

Apparently this warming is accelerating quicker than previously

thought. The May 15 marked the beginning of the Eastern Pacific hurricane

season. So “storms, start your heat engines!”

These storms can be anywhere from zero to 100% source of our summer

surf. Well, since 1997 it’s been close to 0%. ’97 was a banger.

Heck we had swells from almost every spinner, starting with Dolores, a

category three. Guillermo, a category five plus, Linda had sustained

winds of 180 mph, gusting to 225 mph, making her the most powerful

hurricane ever, then Nora, a category four, made it halfway up the Baja

Peninsula.

My theory is: the best summers always coincide with El Ninos. The

water’s warmer, way warmer. A hurricane needs at least 80 degree surface

ocean temps to keep fueled. So hurricanes are stronger, more frequent and

trek further North West and North into our surf window.

All notable Baja swell summers were El Nino summers: ‘58, ‘66, ‘72,

‘76, ‘83, ‘90, ’92 and finally ’97.

The best summer ever was ’72 when we started with “Ava” and ran

through “Theresa.” There were 27 red flag days in the summer of ’72. Now

we can’t buy one since ’97. We need you, El Nino, it’s time for La Nina

to pack her bags and hit the road, now !!!