Where is the el nino rain?

WEATHER TIDBITS

Re: this impending el nino event, when does the impending start?

Well, not yet, apparently, otherwise this June gloom in August

wouldn’t be happening. West winds and 64-degree water wouldn’t be

happening.

We’re at the halfway point in August, not one cloud over the

mountains or deserts and that’s unprecedented.

Since New Year’s, Palm Springs has received a total of .09 of an

inch of rain -- less than a 10th of an inch in eight months! And it’s

supposed to be its rainy season!

Palm Springs normally gets about 6 1/22 inches of rain a year,

about five inches of that falls between June and September.

Well, they’ve had zilch this summer so far, the first time ever

that they’ve had nothing up to this date, Aug. 13. Heck, on Aug. 13,

1983 they had three inches in one day! That summer of 1983 they

received almost 12 inches. And 1984 was even wetter with 13 inches.

Julian, a 4,800-foot elevation community about 50 miles east of

Oceanside had 20 inches that summer. Now they can’t buy a drop!

The waters off Mexico are a dead calm with no hint of any storm

development whatsoever! Are we being punished for something? And why?

Meanwhile, it’s Xerox weather -- dull and drab, no dramatics at

all. Just night through mid-afternoon crud, limp surf, cold water.

I’m moving to Bakersfield and joining a bowling league and becoming a

pimply faced straight-edger.

Stay tuned!

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

bachelor’s degree in Earth Sciences from UC San Diego and was a U.S.

Air Force weatherman at Hickman Air Force Base, Hawaii.