The lore of Guillermo past

WEATHER TIDBITS

The crews down at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

and its National Hurricane Center have come up with enough names for

the Eastern Pacific to go through six alphabets. The names they used

in 1997 are being repeated here in 2003.

TD-7E came and went in a whisper this past weekend. Had it made

tropical storm status (35 to 74 mph wind speed) its name would have

been Guillermo, , Spanish for William or just plain ol’ Mr. “Bill.”

Yep, this year William never even got himself a name tag ‘cause

his sustained winds never blew harder than 30 mph.

Quite a far cry from the Guillermo of yesteryear, as you will see.

Let’s jump in the time machine and travel back to July 27, 1997:

A giant cluster of severe thunderstorms gathered in hot 89-degree

waters way down there 400 miles south of Puerto Escondido.

On the 28th the massive convection machine began to rotate in a

counterclockwise motion and drift slowly to the west and it became a

tropical depression.

By the early morning of the 29th, Guillermo was born and thus

began a journey that would take him on a 7,000-mile tour of the

Eastern Pacific, compliments of a most robust Senor El Nino Grande.

Boy, he was flexing his muscles fast, maturing almost overnight to

a still growing Category 3 before noon of the 30th.

Ambling along at a snail’s pace for a Category 3 (six knots),

Guillermo found himself 950 miles south of the tip of Baja and just

entered a pocket of hot water (81.5 degrees) the size of Texas.

So he became a powerful Category 5 monster with sustained winds of

162 mph with gusts to 175 mph. He crossed the eastern line of our

surf window and set his sights now to the northwest still cruising at

six mph. His violent storm waves were being sent out in every

direction because of his abnormally slow forward speed.

He would move slowly to the northwest for the next six days.

So here we’ve got a storm with 175 mph gusts -- only moving 150

miles per day, moving in a direction that’s sending it’s swell energy

right at us.

Fast forward three days -- it’s Aug. 3, my birthday, and

Guillermo’s first scouts are coming in sideways at Brooks to the Oak

Street stairs to say, “Happy Birthday!”

The waves strengthen slowly though out the day, a Monday, and

hammered us with way-overhead waves all the way into Saturday

(seven-day Baja swells are most rare, usually they’re three days,

max).

Then on Monday the 10th, William turned direct west (270 degrees)

and sped up to 15 to 18 mph. He was out of our western most window

and his present course had him aimed at the Big Island.

The afternoon of the 13th saw him a mere 300 miles due east of

Hilo, Hawaii.

Suddenly he took a sharp turn to the north/northwest (335-340

degrees). Hawaii was spared the wind and rain but was blessed with a

double overhead east swell and south sides had cloud breaks off the

Richter, that maybe break once every 20 years.

Guillermo’s life span has now reached three weeks and he’s now

moved to a spot roughly 2,300 miles west of San Diego -- still a

category one!

With El Nino-enhanced water temps he’s still a tropical storm two

days later on the 19th -- 2,200 miles west of San Francisco.

On the 20th he drifts even further north and then hooks up with a

low sweeping south out of the Gulf of Alaska. William goes extra

tropical and becomes a feisty 994 millibar low and makes a sharp

right turn taking aim at Northern California on the Oregon border.

The storm makes land on the 23rd dumping 2.5 to 3 inches of rain

in Eureka, Calif., but more importantly, Guillermo had gone full

circle and sent us a three day out-of-season northwest groundswell,

with my sacred Rincon break at 4 to 6 foot with 74 degree water

temps.

Guillermo was the longest living Eastern Pacific tropical system

(July 22 to Aug. 23) ever recorded.

Please come back Senor El Nino, it’s been way too long -- we’re

more than halfway through our sixth consecutive bunk summer for

waves.

And the water temperature here on Monday, Aug. 11 at noon is 60 degrees! Mr. El Nino wouldn’t permit that.

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.