Up in this sleepy Central California coastal town, average summer air temp in the mid to high 60’s, average water temperature in the low 50’s, the heat on June 20th reached an astounding 110 degrees.

You may not understand the significance of this unless you could imagine life before air conditioning. Almost none of the shops, homes here have AC. We had temps of 95 degrees in our living room until late nightfall. If you went inland - San Louis Obisbo, the temps reached 115 degrees.

Fodder for the global warming maniacs, I can just hear shouts of “evidence, evidence,” but the real reason was a very large high pressure system directly over Los Angeles and the absence of the normal northernly offshore flow. With that normal offshore flow gone, the natural cooling off of the cold Pacific subsides and the land is vulnerable. The air from the high pressure cascades down, heating up as it does - actually flowing towards the nearest low pressure system. This phenomon explains why it can be hotter at sea level than say a town at 5-6,000 feet above sea level. Fortunately these high pressures, Santa Anna’s, usually only last several days and dissipate.

Back to the issue of Global Warming, why can’t our crazy weather be from our Maker? When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down… Jonah 4:8. Please visit my links to global warming articles on my del.icio.us account. We are called to be good stewards of the gift of nature that God has given us, we should pursue technology that is environmentally beneficial, but let’s not generate a police state in the meantime. It’s time to pursue existing energy alternatives, nuclear, drilling domestically for more oil (why should we purchase oil from sources that don’t care about the environment?), we have the technology and ability to do it safely.

In coincidence, the upside of the hot spell was a swell generated by a storm in the southern hemisphere that hit at the same time. Cayucos is a town with a southwest facing beach, situated to take advantage of swells from that direction. Travelling that distance the swells smooth out and when they break are clean and powerful. Then add the onshore breeze lifting up the face and presto - surfing them you’re making lemonade out of lemons!! So yeah, while others were worrying that our planet is going to die (which it isn’t by a long stretch), I was shreddin some impressive waves and staying warm in 50 degree water. I love life!
PS: I hope the heat didn’t damage this year’s wine crop.