June Gloom Is Starting to Grow Old

The oft-heard “June is the cloudiest month of the year” from forecasters is wearing thin with cloud-haters in San Diego County as the weekend prediction once again contains more gray than blue.

The abundance of clouds lately is quite normal, said National Weather Service forecaster Frank Perdue. It is caused by a moderate onshore flow pushing the clouds inland.

This weather pattern is common in late spring because the typical winter pattern of offshore flow has disappeared but the sun is not strong enough to burn off the marine layer stretching to the mountains.

Clouds at Beaches

This is small consolation, however, to those who have had plans for outdoor activities the past several weekends.

“For beach-goers it will be business as usual,” Perdue said. “A lot of clouds all day long, with just a little chance of afternoon clearing expected.”

On the plus side, there will be some improvement in afternoon clearing in the intermediate inland areas like La Mesa, Escondido and Poway, he said. These places will see a little more sunshine than they have this week because a shifting pattern in the mountain and desert areas.

Though the mountains and deserts have dried out this week from last weekend’s thunderstorms, there will be an increase in subtropical moisture Saturday and Sunday, resulting in some isolated thundershowers in those areas.

Possible Thundershowers

“It’s been kind of clear over there through this week,” Perdue said, “but we do expect this to change over the weekend. There’ll be a lot more clouds and some thundershower and lightning activity, though nothing as dramatic as what happened up in L.A. last weekend.”

Thunder, lightning and hail hit several Southern California counties, sparking small fires and flash-flood watches.

He added that desert highs will fall to around the 100 mark because of the increased cloudiness. Borrego Springs hit 106 Thursday.

The high temperature at Lindbergh Field on Thursday was 66, 5 degrees below normal for that date. The overnight low was 61 degrees, 1 degree below normal.

Coastal areas will have highs from 66 to 70 through Sunday, and lows will be from 56 to 62. Surf will average 3 feet, and water temperature will be near 64.

Highs will be in the low 70s in the western inland areas and in the high 70s in the eastern valleys through Sunday. Overnight lows will range from 54 to 60 in all inland areas.

Mountains will have highs from 76 to 83 through the weekend, with lows in the upper 40s and low 50s. Desert highs will be in the 100- to 105-degree range today, dipping down a few degrees Saturday and Sunday. Lows will be in the upper 60s.