Weather Tidbits -- Dennis McTighe

For the next seven weeks, beginning Tuesday, the sun will be setting

at 8 p.m. or later, maxing out from June 20 to the Fourth of July at 8:08

p.m. at our latitude.

Our longest day, sun-wise, is 14 hours 26 minutes. Sunrise at 5:42

a.m. and sunset at 8:08 p.m.

The amount of daylight increases the further north you go, hence an

earlier sunrise and a later sunset. For instance, in San Francisco it’s

5:29 a.m. and 8:22 p.m. at the Solstice. In Seattle, it’s 5:19 a.m. and

8:34 p.m. In Juneau, Alaska, it’s 5:55 a.m. and 9:02 p.m. Fairbanks, it’s

3:07 a.m. and 10:52 p.m.

Then, of course it’s 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. all year round at the

equator.

Turning our attention to the tropics, there’s a noteworthy event worth

mentioning, in fact, unprecedented at least since records have been kept.

And it’s a real good sign: The first time we’ve gotten a south swell from

the very first hurricane of the season, in May, to boot.

In fact only one other time have we received waves from the first

storm of the season, and that was June 7 through 9, 1972 from hurricane

Ava.

And just like Ava, Alma affected our weather last Friday, as arms of

middle and high clouds with lots of humidity spun off her core.

Hopefully Alma has set the tone because we know how epic the summer of

‘72 was, from Ava in June to Teresa in October. Every storm gave us a

major south to south-southeast swell.

The past four summers have produced a total of five B tropical swells.

Two in ‘98, none in ‘99, one in ’00 and two in ‘01, so we are way due.

Afternoon high temps are still averaging below normal since March.

February was our only month with above average temps this year, in

fact there were four days with 80 degrees or above that month, more than

all last summer! So we’re way due for a warm summer and I think this will

be the one!

Stay tuned!

* DENNIS MCTIGHE is a Laguna Beach resident.