AUGUST 1999 MONTHLY REVIEW
Anomolously cool temps for August, with a mean temp for the month only 60.8F.
By comparison, August 1997, with El Nino just starting to gain strength,
mean temps was 64.1F. A dramatic example of the cool air has been temps
in the Central Valley, where highs should be between 95 and 105F, but this
month were hard pressed to hit 80 on several occassions. On a brief trip
to Lake Tahoe and Reno, we encountered high temps in the San Juaquin Valley
of only 74F at 1430..a good 25 degrees below typical. Here in Pacifica, on
the 30th, we had a low of 49.9F, the first time in memory we had a sub-50
reading in August. Temps were kept quite moderate by 2 factors...cold upper
level cutoff lows kept diving down the coast to off SoCal, then pivoting
to the coast in a NE direction, dragging it's cool pool of air and increased
stratus along with it, and a return to below normal SST's. Once again, (twice
in last three years), significant rains fell in August, a time of year when
any rain is noteworthy. 0.19" fell from the 4th-6th from a very Autumn like
storm from the GOA, as high temps failed to make it out of the 50's on the
4th and 5th. Overall, 8 days of measurable precip, mostly due to heavy fog
and drizzle (except for the 4th-6th). SST is dropping back down to
the middle 50's after briefly hitting the low 60's in late July. The rapid
swings in SST is playing havoc with the ocean life - red tide and purple
(warmer) surface water blowing up from the south one day, then cooler water
from the northwest cools things off and water turns back to typical silty
green. Anchovy have been incredibly thick up and down the coast, and Striper
fishing has ceased after what only seemd like a two week season in mid July.
The whereabouts of the Stripers is a mystery..most theories hold that the
fish are still out there, but stuffed to the gills with bait. I for one am
not buying that explaination, as I have caught many fish with dozens af bait
fish in the stomach. Even when stuffed, an agressive Striper will still hit
a lure. My thinking is that the fish have moved out into deeper water to
find better water conditions. Flora conditions continue to suffer, and most
fruit bearing trees have below normal fruit in both size and quantity. My
apple tree has almost no fruit, despite being historically a fine producer.
MONTHLY CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY for AUG. 1999
NAME: HOME CITY: Pacifica STATE: Ca ELEV: 540' LAT: 37.36'N LONG: 122.27'W
TEMPERATURE (°F), RAIN (in), WIND SPEED (mph)
HEAT COOL AVG
MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOM
DAY TEMP HIGH TIME LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH TIME DIR
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 60.1 67.1 2:00p 55.3 7:00a 3.8 0.0 0.00 3.8 14.0 3:30p SSW
2 62.4 70.3 10:30a 55.7 7:00a 2.0 0.0 0.01 2.7 12.0 2:30p SSW
3 59.1 64.4 3:00p 56.3 12:00m 4.7 0.0 0.00 3.9 16.0 12:00p SSW
4 56.8 58.8 3:30p 54.9 6:30a 8.2 0.0 0.05 5.2 21.0 4:30p S
5 57.0 59.2 2:30p 55.2 5:00a 7.8 0.0 0.07 6.7 22.0 1:30p S
6 59.6 64.0 4:00p 57.0 1:30a 4.5 0.0 0.07 4.1 15.0 3:00a SSW
7 61.1 67.9 2:30p 57.7 1:30a 2.2 0.0 0.00 2.5 14.0 7:00p SW
8 62.1 68.0 1:30p 58.8 1:30a 1.6 0.0 0.00 2.9 13.0 2:00p SSW
9 59.8 65.0 2:00p 57.3 6:00a 3.8 0.0 0.00 3.5 13.0 4:00p SSW
10 60.3 63.9 4:30p 57.3 3:30a 4.4 0.0 0.02 4.3 17.0 4:30p SSW
11 61.6 66.7 3:00p 58.6 12:00m 2.4 0.0 0.02 2.9 13.0 8:00p SSW
12 60.6 67.9 2:30p 57.0 12:00m 2.5 0.0 0.00 5.0 21.0 2:00p SSW
13 60.0 66.9 1:30p 56.9 2:00a 3.1 0.0 0.00 5.5 19.0 2:00p S
14 60.4 67.9 9:30a 55.8 8:00a 3.2 0.0 0.00 6.0 24.0 4:30p S
15 62.2 73.7 3:30p 53.0 12:00m 1.7 0.0 0.00 2.3 13.0 1:00a W
16 60.1 71.6 12:30p 50.9 3:00a 3.8 0.0 0.01 1.4 10.0 12:30p W
17 58.6 66.5 12:30p 54.2 5:30a 4.7 0.0 0.01 2.7 13.0 1:00p NW
18 59.1 64.2 3:00p 56.1 12:30a 4.9 0.0 0.00 5.5 19.0 6:00p S
19 61.0 69.4 1:00p 55.4 8:30a 2.6 0.0 0.00 3.4 13.0 3:00a SSW
20 58.9 65.9 3:30p 55.4 1:30a 4.3 0.0 0.00 4.6 19.0 8:30p SSW
21 63.4 73.8 10:00a 55.0 8:00a 0.6 0.0 0.00 2.9 11.0 1:30a SSW
22 65.1 79.3 2:00p 54.0 6:00a 0.0 1.7 0.00 1.8 9.0 2:00p SSW
23 64.1 77.0 1:30p 55.0 7:30a 0.0 1.0 0.00 2.2 21.0 2:00a SSE
24 59.9 69.9 3:30p 53.8 7:00a 3.2 0.0 0.00 1.7 9.0 5:30p W
25 63.9 74.5 3:00p 52.2 7:00a 1.7 0.0 0.00 1.8 10.0 2:00p SSW
26 63.7 76.2 1:30p 53.4 6:00a 0.2 0.0 0.00 1.5 14.0 12:00p SSW
27 65.4 77.1 11:30a 57.2 7:30a 0.0 2.2 0.00 2.0 14.0 12:30p SSW
28 61.9 75.5 2:00p 57.8 8:30a 0.0 1.7 0.00 2.8 11.0 10:00p SSW
29 58.5 62.8 4:30p 56.1 7:00a 5.6 0.0 0.00 4.7 16.0 3:00p S
30 59.0 65.6 1:30p 53.1 12:00m 5.7 0.0 0.00 4.1 24.0 6:30p SSW
31 57.8 67.7 10:30a 49.9 7:00a 6.2 0.0 0.00 2.9 19.0 4:00p S
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
60.8 79.3 22 49.9 31 99.0 6.5 0.26 3.5 24.0 14 SSW
Max >= 90.0: 0
Max <= 32.0: 0
Min <= 32.0: 0
Min <= 0.0: 0
Max Rain: 0.07 ON 8/05/99
Days of Rain: 5 (>.01 in) 0 (>.1 in) 0 (>1 in)
Heat Base: 65.0 Cool Base: 65.0 Method: (High + Low) / 2