2018 California/Southwest Weather Thread

[Anti Marine Layer]

Still drizzling as of 11 AM here. Looks like more record low maximums could be broken the next 3 days.

[Thunder98]

Same exact latitude but different weather. 

 

Santa Maria, CA

 

 

Rock Hill, SC

 

[Anti Marine Layer]

This has definitely got to be one of the most bizarre years I can ever remember. It began with deep troughing in mid September, but with sea surface temperatures well above normal, the deep marine layer did not have its usual refrigeration effect. Then there was that heat wave around the time of the World Series, followed by what looked like it could be our first fall storm, but that fizzled out. Then the Thanksgiving heat wave followed by the December Santa Ana winds, which actually started out cold, but caused the fires anyway. Though there were a few really cold days and one big storm, which finally helped to put out the fires a month after they began, there was another Santa Ana event followed by extreme heat all the way to the coast in late January. Trees still had leaves in January and early February like they would have in November. Then the sudden stratospheric warming which caused temperatures to crash late February and about the time trees usually bud the their new leaves they finally lost them. Leave buds were still coming in early May. Still gotta wonder if this troughy pattern is a result of that sudden stratospheric warming.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Anytime at sunset it is as dark as the end of civil twilight, you know that the clouds have to be really, really, really, really, really, really thick.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Mt Wilson, which may be fogged over by tomorrow morning.

 

[Guest happ]

No sun to speak of today

 

70/ 59

[Anti Marine Layer]

It's raining out. Raining. Not just drizzling. Raining.

[Anti Marine Layer]

0.02" in the last hour. 0.03" since last night.

[Anti Marine Layer]

0.05" so far. The low clouds like to pile up on the Santa Ana Mountains here making us even gloomier than most places. We can also get some decent rainfall from winter storms while the totals for John Wayne Airport are pathetic.

 

Mt. Wilson Observatory is fogged in this morning, as I predicted yesterday.

[Guest happ]

Ground is wet from apparent overnight drizzle but only 0.01 in gauge.

 

L: 59

[Guest happ]

NWS_LA

"That said, its
  pretty unusual for the marine layer to hang tough for so many days
  in a row so there is a decent chc of some afternoon clearing".
 

[Thunder98]

On and off drizzly light rain in Santa Maria 

[Anti Marine Layer]

Lovely day in Julian as well.

 

[Guest happ]

Drizzle off and on. Now 0.02

[Dan the Weatherman]

0.05" so far. The low clouds like to pile up on the Santa Ana Mountains here making us even gloomier than most places. We can also get some decent rainfall from winter storms while the totals for John Wayne Airport are pathetic.

 

Mt. Wilson Observatory is fogged in this morning, as I predicted yesterday.

 

The air gets lifted over the mountains in a process called orographic lifting, causing more cloud buildups and wringing out more moisture from the marine layer (and storms, too). These upslope areas on the windward sides of mountain ranges (side in which prevailing winds blow toward) can receive quite a bit more rainfall than surrounding flatter areas not as close to the mountains. This is the reason why totals at John Wayne Airport can be so much lower than areas such as Foothill Ranch and Trabuco Canyon.

 

On the other hand, Lake Elsinore is on the leeward side of Saddleback, and the flow is more downsloping and drier on that side, and the areas along I-15 that are downwind of the higher peaks are much drier, even almost desert-like at times. Temecula is wetter than Lake Elsinore, since the mountains are much lower in that direction and they don't act as much as a rain shadow as around Elsinore. Please note that I am talking about the rainy season patterns, and not the summer monsoon pattern, which is quite different for these regions.

[Guest happ]

It is only 61F at mid afternoon; this could very well be another record low maximum for the date.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Sun actually came out a little bit this morning, but now the clouds are thick again with a slightly less gloomy area of sky towards the ocean.

[Guest happ]

Managed to pick up 0.04 today

 

64/ 59

 

May: 0.13

[Anti Marine Layer]

Seems to be a tad less dark than yesterday at this time, likely because yesterday had a solid cirrus deck atop the usual May Gray deck.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Upper low brought some much more exciting weather today to Albuquerque with severe thunderstorms and temperatures dropping from 72 F to 48 F in one hour.

[Anti Marine Layer]

It's possible it could warm up next week, but I would not count on it. While this May may feel like the coldest in history, 2015 and 2016 were slightly cooler, but the month is not over yet. Also, looks like one year Downtown L.A. averaged an incredibly chilly 67 F for the high one May.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Also, 2014 was incredibly hot with almost no May Gray/June Gloom. 2015 was above average every month of the year except for May when we had some late season storms that brought some real rain.

[Jesse]

KCQT, KBUR, and KSNA are all running about a -0.5º departure for the month. KLAX is actually running 0.2º above normal. If that really feels like "the coldest in history," it says more about how consistently warm it's been over the last few years than how cool this May has been.

Seems like you are having the same problem down there that we are up here. People have become so acclimated to constant warmer and drier than average conditions that average is now viewed as unbearably cool and gloomy.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Clouds are a bit thinner today, but it's not making too much difference in temperatures.

 

Yesterday the evening felt warmer than the middle of the day, which is fairly typical for deep marine layers, since the breeze usually stops toward the evening.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Clouds are in their teasing mode where it looks like the sun is about to come out, but it probably will not, or if it does, it won't be long until more stratocumulus form.

[Thunder98]

It's finally a very sunny    but cool afternoon.

[Guest happ]

Clouds cleared about 30 minutes ago for the first time in at least 4 days.

 

66/ 57

[Anti Marine Layer]

Clouds have thinned out, but are nowhere close to clearing here. Tomorrow is a new day.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Los Angeles forecast discussion says a ridge might form early next week, San Diego says no. Both are predicting much warmer temperatures by Memorial Day.

[Guest happ]

NWS refers to it as "back-filling" when the stratus shield moves west toward the coast. It never cleared up against Mt Wilson/ San Gabriel valley today. I've never kept track of consecutive cloudy days but this month has had its "fair" share.  

[Anti Marine Layer]

Wonder what the most cutoff lows for May are. May 2015 was cool, with some storms that brought real rain and even a few cold days in the desert. However, I don't think they were all cutoff lows.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Apparently a new inversion is trying to form as clouds have started to break up after sunset.

[Guest happ]

It was clear at the Huntington Beach farmer's market

https://twitter.com/HBSurfCityUSA

 

[Anti Marine Layer]

Another lame excuse for a "ridge" today with marine layer still 4000 ft deep and Fullerton overcast for 100 hours straight. Really, really gloomy this morning as well as it was slightly brighter the last 2 mornings.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Sacramento is getting some light rain this morning from the marine layer.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Marine layer once again appears to be deeper over Orange and L.A. counties than San Diego County, as Sandberg (4700 ft.) was in the soup this morning and Julian (4200 ft.) was not.

[Guest happ]

Yesterday there was surface stratus under the inversion and altocumulus above that. Higher ceiling this morning.

 

L: 59

[Anti Marine Layer]

Julian is 72 F, Beaumont is 55 F. Inversion must be quite strong.

[Guest happ]

Solid Stratus

 

https://twitter.com/sdutKrier

[Anti Marine Layer]

Sun is trying to come out again with not much success. Big difference from the darkness this morning at 8 am.

 

One thing I wonder. How many consecutive overcast days would be needed for leaves to start changing color?