Just like the clockwork of a rooster’s call at dawn.  On the first day of June each year, coastal Southern California becomes encapsulated by dense gloom.  You can guarantee it.

Out of state visitors mistake the gloom for smog.  But it’s something very different.  For the legendary Los Angeles smog disappeared in the early 1990s when the state enacted mandatory vehicle smog testing.

What a hassle and annoying expense.  But at least the San Gabriel Mountains are now visible from Long Beach most days of the year.  Plus school kids rarely now have recess called off for elevated ozone levels…unlike the good old days.

June gloom is a natural occurrence quite different than smog.  Warming temperatures in the inland region draw the dense grey marine layer several miles in each morning where it sits over the vast coastal plain.  Blue skies don’t appear until the sun burns the miasma off around 1 PM only to be covered up again by the following morning.

Some can’t stand it.  Others enjoy the brief – about 3 week – reprieve from the upcoming summer heat while it lasts. Continue reading →