Sun trying to make up for lost time

DENNIS McTIGHE

Just a reminder, clocks go back an hour as of Sunday.

The adjusted time of sunrise and sunset that day will be 6:08 a.m.

and 5:03 p.m. Yep, the Dark Ages have returned.

The marine layer has been a bit more compassionate as of late.

It’s near 80 degrees at 1:30 p.m. on Monday and that’s a first for

this month. And we got to see a rare event today, the sunrise!

The wind is still calm, it’s super glassy and the surf is firing

out of the northwest. Plus there’s only a two-foot tidal swing all

day. 2.7 to 4.7.

Sounds to me like real October symptoms; we’ve endured nearly five

weeks of coal miner’s lung conditions.

We’ve got a mild Santa Ana condition going on today, no northeast

winds, except right below the passes and canyons at 25-30 mph.

Water temperatures have rebounded too with readings warmer than

many days we had back in August.

It really was a weird summer. That brief thundershower back in

July is the only measurable moisture we’ve had since July 1.

October is normally pretty dry with only .45 inches the norm.

Then in November it turns a little wetter with 1.25 inches.

December normally doubles November rain with 2.50 inches.

Our annual norm is about 12.75 inches. Our driest season was two

years ago -- 4.42 inches, our wettest season was six years ago --

37.27 inches.

The earth has really been quiet for quite some time now --

shakewise -- that makes me nervous!

See ya.

* 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.