Weather

This has been a very strange year on the northern California Coast where I live. First in about January we got more sun from January to June than we had had in the past two years. Then starting about June it was like the sun almost never came out and it was only fog all summer long. That part wasn't unusual. What was unusual is that usually we get high fog of about 600 feet or higher that could just be mistaken for total cloud cover to someone not used to it. But this summer every evening almost the fog came down sort of like mist. Once in a while that isn't unusual but almost every day for 3 months? Finally, today it was at least 81 degrees with full sun and the ocean waves were very loud with water coming in in unusual ways with unexpected rises in ocean depth at the shore. So, hopefully the weather will be sunny for awhile like it was in the late winter and spring. That was nice. Fall and Spring is usually our best weather with summer being almost as cold as the winter only without the sometimes severe storms off the ocean. Usually at least once a year we get waves not to far from here of 20 to 35 feet high. And then Surfers who like waves that high come with Jet skis to tow them into the waves and then to save them before they crash onto the rocks after their rides. You really have to be expert to do that but it is fun to watch so the locals gather in this spot while sometimes the seaweed scatters on the porches of homes nearby from the foamy surf. But, usually water doesn't go inside any homes. As the ocean rises this might become a problem though for some houses during the big wave days of the year. So after weather not going above 65 degrees Fahrenheit all summer long and some nights being in the high 40s and low 50s we finally had one day of over 80 degrees. Absolutely everyone was at the beach because the skies were clear from the wind off the Pacific Ocean and you could see forever!

A normal summer here was spoken of by Mark Twain, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco!" This is what we also had only with mist a part of almost every day this summer. But, at least the plants liked it and it made the streams run until the fall and the rivers run a little deeper. But usually, there are not smaller streams running here during the summers because they usually dry up. Strange weather!