Southern California's summer to end with a chill: It was the coldest in decades

Farewell summer, we hardly knew ye!

The last day of summer is Wednesday, but meteorologists say the season barely bothered to show up in the region this year. So cooler fall will make an almost noiseless entrance Thursday, hardly indistinguishable from the summer Southern Californians just experienced.

“Summer played hooky on us. It never really showed up,” said Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge. “We leaped from spring to fall.”

Patzert said a low-pressure trough that stalled along the West Coast from Alaska to southern Baja California kept the summer cooler than usual, with many overcast days. Monthly temperatures in downtown Los Angeles from April to now have averaged between one to three degrees cooler than normal.

Patzert said it’s one of the coolest summers in decades.

Jamie Meier, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said that LAX tied the coldest average temperature for August on record, going back to 1944. 

The Santa Barbara airport also broke a record for coolest August, she said. The weather service is predicting a La Nina cycle that could mean drier-than-normal conditions. That isn’t always the case during La Nina, said Meier. But more often than not it is, she said.

Thoughout the summer, communities across Southern California set record low temperatures, notably Los Angeles International Airport and other coastal areas.

-- Hector Becerra

Photo: Children play in San Bernardino County. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Tommy Tags]

Gorebull Warming was the biggest hoax ever and uncovered last year. Very simple, follow the money people!!! Who is paying for the the junk science reports that "back up" GW claims??? Do you think a researcher is going to turn down a $100K grant to "study" GW and report that it doesn't exist and put himself out of the follow on grant??? Al Gore will become the 1st GW billionaire if he can convince the congress to pass these new taxes, which by the way, kill jobs, kill prosperity and make every product COST MORE MONEY. Those taxes are a HUGE money grab all based on junk science and screaming kool aid drinkers. If this hoax is true, one big debate from Gore would put the argument to bed. Gore will never debate GW cause he knows the answers/proof don't exist!!! Part of the reason SOCAL stayed so cold is the warm water from Mexico never pushed up. The Japanese currents from the north were stronger and held the temps in the low 60s.

[Thomas]

Whenever the East Coast is abnormally hot, the West Coast is abnormally cold. Departures from normal temperatures are typically caused by bends in the jet stream, which more or less divides the polar air mass from the tropical air mass. When the jet stream bulges south in the west (keeping it cold), it tends to bulge north in the east, kind of like what happens when you squeeze a balloon in one place and it bulges out in another. When the jet stream goes further north in the east, that makes it warmer there.

We should make a deal: We'll stop making "global cooling" jokes because it's freezing here, if AGW advocates stop using every heat wave at the other end as support for *their* position.

[jukin]

Two rules for global warming:

1)
When it is colder than normal it is just weather.

Now, when it is warmer than usual it is GLOBAL WARMING THE WORLD IS GONNA END!!!11!!!eleventy

2)
When it is warmer than usual it is due to global warming.
When it is colder that usual it is due to global warming.
When it is the same temperature it is due to global warming.

Rinse and repeat.

[Tommy]

Folks, I live in DC and we have NOT had our hottest summer. Yes, July was warm but August and September were below normal. Sorry Global Warming alarmists but Al Gore Lied and our Economy Died.

[Big Tony]

Joe, The kooks on the left won't look at the facts. Even after it came out that global warming was a sham, they still can't give it up. It's hard for them to admit that they got snookered. Al Gore is there hero. He would never ever lie. It was not about redistributing wealth and Al making a little profit on it all. The New symbol for the Marxist Democrat left wing nuts should be an ostrich with its head in hole. What they can't see or hear won't change their minds.

[Brandon]

To all who believe global warming... If you actually take the time to "understand" the science of it, you can't, because it doesn't make sense. Global warming, at least "man-made" is a joke. Any warming on our planet is caused by natural weather changes and solar activity. We have been keeping track of temps for how long now? Maybe 100 years? How can we even begin to act like we know how man affects the Earth. Please liberal left, think before you speak, not the other way around.

[Mea Sententia]

Funny how Mother Nature ignores doomsday global warming/climate change caused by humans, enviro-pagan, liberal screech. You liberals just keep running at the mouth and the end result is $billions wasted and jobs lost.

[Markangelo]

The ocean water was warmer than the air yesterday .

[Virginia]

Now let's see: Obama's Administration and the other climate gurus changed Global Warming to Global Climate Change (of some sort). That's what I call a fortuitous and timely word "adjustment". Is there anyone around that remembers the Dust Bowl of the Plain States? There wasn't too much investigaton of the Polar Regions at that time as I recall, so the vaunted "greenies" have a truly limited pallet of facts with which to conjeacture.. Here in the desert of California, we had a "mild summer" with temps of 118 degrees less often than usual. Let the spins begin!!!!!!!

[Nick Athens]

So everybody is right EXCEPT. I was trained as a physicist under Luis Alvarez. Remembe rhe was the guy who figured a meteor struck the Yucatan peninsula. Anyway, we sallknow the climate has always had "change", we can see it through the fossil record.

In a mathematical record, to remove a very short segment of data and infer a trend is perilous indeed.

As a mathematician, i would prefer to see an analysis of the second derivative of the data. Specifically is the rate of change or volatility of climate change increasing or decreasing compared to history. Then show that the rate of change of external influences such as the sun is not changing, and I will start paying attention.

[WIlliam Shipley]

Expect more cool weather. The solar cycle has been very quiet so we are probably in for several years of short crops and severe winters. If the sun doesn't get more active soon, this could be a real problem.

The reality is that a few degrees warmer and a bit more CO2 would cause some dislocation but increase the growth of food and generally improve the standard of living around the world -- much as it was in the Viking era where the Vikings settled in Newfoundland and called it Vinland because of the grapes (that no longer grow because it's still cooler than it was then). Extra CO2 would increase plant growth and crop yield.

On the other hand, cooler will be a real problem with shortened growing seasons, harsher winters. We want warm, not cold.

The only ones thinking this is the warmest year on record are the ones cooking the numbers.

[CSC5502]

"It's called 'climate change' for a reason."

Yep, and that reason is that first they screamed about "global cooling" and that was wrong. Then they screamed about "global warming" and that is turning out to be wrong. So the communists aka environmentalists needed a new way to attack America/capitalism. Thus "climate change" was born. It's really convenient.

Temperature up? Climate change. Temperature down? Climate change. More rain? Climate change. Less rain? Climate change.

Snow in May? That's just weather. Hurricane during hurricane season? Climate change.

It's easy to be right when you set up the conditions so EVERY weather change means you're right.

[8644]

What Science?

[Al Gore Weather Whhore]

Just in time for another Al Gore Global Warming lecture.

[Steve]

Man made global warming is a scam to promote more government control over our lives, more taxes and regulation like buying poorly working light bulbs with mercury inside. By the way, a little more CO2 is a good thing for plants and the forests and it won't hurt us. It has been a real mild summer here in Hawaii, no real hot days, quite nice really. Surfs up

[Idiot Savant]

Why are scientists finding so many artifacts from ancient hunters in reqions previously covered by ice that are now thawing? So man used to live in these regions but then they were covered by ice and now the ice is retreating again? Did they have aresol cans back then? How did this primative hunter destroy the ozone to bring on climate change? Wish I understood the "science" like Stoaty & Robert!!!

[John Freiheit]

I have been in Orange County for 25 years. I have a 12 year old and 6 year old cat. Each year the summer kicks in around July and does not end until sometimes as late as November or even early december. Around December or January my cats sprout the extra "winter" fur that starts at their neck. Their bodies do this in anticipation of winter. Well check this out... it is mid September and my kitties are growing their winter fur right now. NEVER seen this since I have had cats in the OC in 25 years. Based on that I think my cats know something we dont and we are going to have a super super cold winter coming.

[Ken]

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

The climatologists want to turn all of us into Chicken Little. "Climate Change" has nothing to do with climate and everything to do with money. Always follow the money.

[Eric of Reseda]

Leave it to ignorant Right-Wingers who see "cool" and think it debunks global warming models. Anyone who studies GW knows that things are going nearly precisely according to predictions, which include milder summers at these latitudes.

Of course, Conservatives - who want pesky little issues like pollution and runaway industry to go away so that they can make more money - won't talk about the fact that they had to truck snow into Vancouver for the Winter Olympics, or that roads built on the permafrost that supports them in Scandanavia is melting wreaking havoc on infrastructure, or that Russia is burning or all the record flooding we're seeing, well, just about everywhere.

[Doug Lynn]

Global warming? Global climate change? Climate disruption? Let's be honest for once. The entire climate change movement is dominated by scientists that report results that support the need for more research dollars. Politicians and other interested parties that promote new laws to stop climate change are doing so to make money and gain power over the rest of us. It may not be all about power and money, but most of it is. If there is real crisis why are proponents like Al Gore using more energy than 100 average people just for himself. The difference between the words and actions is way to obvious to ignore. And, don't tell me he buys carbon credits! I am not that stupid.

[GreyGeek]

Getting hot here? Global warming...

Getting cold there? Global warming ...

Neither hot nor cold? Global warming ...

When kook science has hammer everything it sees is a nail, especially when the "research" is paid and supported by "agents of change".

[Joe A]

So let me see if I understand this "science". In the 70's we were all warned about global cooling caused by the release of CFCs into the atmosphere. Then, over the last 20 years or so, we were warned about global warming caused by carbon emissions. Now that the global temperature data is fluctuating, we are warned of "climate change" and are fed non-sequiturs such as "global warming causes cooling". Could it be that the science is still inconclusive? Could it be that there are other, larger factors at work (e.g. sun spots and/or our proximity to the sun)? For too many, the "science" has become more of a religion.

[Enzo]

Sun spots back to normal. Sorry Al Gore, New World Order, UN crooks and banksters, you aren't fooling anyone with your sordid plans.

[Enzo]

Hey Californians, better send 20% of your paychecks to banksters in Switzerland and to Al Gore so they can "fix" the summer weather for your state. Cool summer is bad for you. Trust them.

[Enzo]

One of the coldest summers and winters on record in South America. Please send 20% of your paychecks to unelected UN big wigs, Goldman Sachs, and to Al Gore, so they can "fix" the weather for you, ok? Make the checks to their accounts in Switzerland and Copenhagen. Now I let you go back to your childish apps.