October 11 Fall

Summer officially left us on September 22 .Fall is now upon us but you’d hardly know it , until today . It would probably be a freezing 20 to 22 degrees today , I’m even considering a long sleeve shirt .On December 21 we will enter the winter cycle . The seasons in the US are attached to the equinox dates , not the monthly calendar . I told you they do it their way .It has cooled off a bit . It feels a little more like May , there’s actually a cloud or two in the sky . The ocean looks a bit bigger , its blue has got deeper . The full piece wetsuit is more comfortable , although you can still surf in boardshorts in mid afternoon .The weather patterns are starting to shift . The first of the low pressure systems that spin off Canada and Alaska are heading east out into the Pacific Ocean , before drifting down the coast and limping into California . It sounds grand but these Lows only drop the temperature a couple of degrees and it isn’t the grey cloud formations you see in Melbourne or a lot of Australia , no drizzle or gusty cold southerly winds . The ocean fog has re emerged , not nearly as consistent as its big brothers ‘May grey and June gloom’, but its arrival has heralded a change . The surf is still small but the looooong flat spells of summer may just have left us , although today it’s too small . You can stand on the shore and watch the horizon roll towards you . It’s a fascinating site , the gloom creeping across the ocean surface , at first a small line of silk that grows into a rolling fuzz . . It is an eerie occurrence that takes your imagination off to ‘The Lost Boys’ and pirates and ghosts .You can see how this phenomenon has become a scene in many a horror movie. The moment it reaches the shore the fog horns start to echo through the mist , warning boats and shipping of the coastline .Within half an hour it has rolled up the hill and into the valley where it quickly gets annihilated by the LA sun . Sometimes this event can happen multiple times during the day , usually it’s mid morning or late afternoon . This type of weather dominates SanFrancisco where big fluctuations occur due to the ocean fog .The temperature changes are often compared to Melbourne but from a completely different source . The ocean fog is a mesmerising site , something I will always remember when I think of California.