The Shores of Gitchy Gloomy

There was a light rain this morning. Not very much and not in my part of town, but enough to pester the morning newscasters introducing the Hummer H3 and the San Diego County Fair. The skies have looked threatening for days -- not thick, dark threatening, but grey, sprinkle threatening -- yet nothing has fallen, save what little nagged the TV crew. Californians call this looming overcast "June Gloom," hot on the heels of "May Grey."

This is quite opposite Nashville weather, where May and June are rather sunny months, if too hot. Here in San Diego, it's dark and cool. So cool, in fact, that I wondered: what IS the average June temperature here? The answer: 66.8 degrees. Before the chilling breeze blows through. In Nashville, the June average is nearly 10 degrees higher at 75.6. That temperature is also notably a full 3 degrees hotter than San Diego's hottest month, August. San Diegoans would fry in a Nashville July or August, both of which average temperatures nearing 80 degrees and are swamped with a sticky humidity foreign to the coast. And I'm with them: sticky and hot in Tennessee... yuck! Bring on the June gloom! Except... well... I miss the rain.

Earlier this year, I wrote a precipitation comparison. San Diego is nearing the end of its third wettest season. Ever. It seemed, early in my visit, that it might catch the record. But the rain stopped. Some time ago. To Nashville's average 47 inches of rain annually, San Diego records less than 10, but the current tally is up to 22.49 inches for the season ending June 30th. I might wait until the season ends in a few weeks to point out that San Diego will not catch the record of 25.97, or even second best at 24.74, but why? June will not provide the numbers. The average June precipitation over the last 30 years has been 0.09 inches. In the last 5 Junes, the total precipitation was 0.00. No rain. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Dry, dry, dry. Meanwhile, Nashville will expect 3.6 inches before the month is out and 4 more in July.

In rough math, while San Diego has seen 250% of normal precip this year, it has registered only 50% of what is normal to me. An average year here would see only 5% of what is normal to me. It's hard to imagine so little rain. Harder still when the clouds hovering above hide all hints of blue skies.

So this is June Gloom. And it's only the 10th. If these clouds aren't going to produce even one good thunderstorm, then they should be gone! Shoo! Bring in July... and whatever cutesy moniker the locals have for it.

Side note: Seattle, known for its rain, registers 9 inches fewer than Nashville annually. However, Seattle's drip-torture method of near-constant light rain is quite different from Nashville's spurts of torrential downpour.