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Outdoor San Diego
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Sunrise...Sunset
By Jerry Schad - November 21, 2009, 8:57 a.m.
November's and December's Picturesque Sunsets and sunrises are no accident. This is the time of year when high cirrus clouds, often the precursors of storms, sweep through our area with some regularity. When cirrus or other lofty clouds are present, low-angle sunlight bathes the undersides of these clouds in a ...
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Sweet Gums and Sycamores
By Jerry Schad - November 18, 2009, 1:16 p.m.
Liquidambar Trees, or sweet gums, the deciduous trees gracing front yards, parks, and campuses throughout the San Diego area, have been putting on an exceptionally colorful show. The leaves of some varieties turn to purple or red; the leaves of other varieties fade to golden yellow. Still other varieties hold ...
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Leonid Meteor Shower
By Jerry Schad - November 16, 2009, 9:08 a.m.
The Annual Leonid Meteor Shower, famous for its outbursts over the period 1998-2002, has now settled down to a modest display of only about 10-20 visible events per hour (as seen under clear, dark skies in a remote mountain or desert locale). This year, for the West Coast, the peak ...
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Santa Anas in November
By Jerry Schad - November 9, 2009, 8:58 p.m.
Santa Ana Winds in San Diego County often reach their greatest intensity during November, particularly at the mountain passes, where dry air from a high-pressure area over the interior deserts swoops coastward toward a low-pressure area offshore. The subsiding air warms rapidly while it descends, resulting in 80°-90° temperatures close ...
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Acorns, Monarchs, and Tarantula Spiders
By Jerry Schad - November 8, 2009, 3:20 p.m.
Acorn Dropping reaches a crescendo early this month in the Cuyamaca, Laguna,and Palomar mountains. Wiry scrub oaks, massive canyon live oaks, and the golden-leaved black oaks all contribute to the growing collection of acorns littering the ground. Acorn woodpeckers are busy stuffing acorns into the small holes they drill into ...
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Declining Temps
By Jerry Schad - November 6, 2009, 10:37 a.m.
Local Temperatures should be declining most rapidly during this time of year, according to more than a century of local meteorological records. With every successive week, daily maximum temperatures are declining by about 3/4° Fahrenheit, and daily minimum temperatures are plummeting by about 1° Fahrenheit. (This gradual onset of fall/winter ...
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The Taurid Meteor Shower
By Jerry Schad - November 4, 2009, 9:47 a.m.
The Taurid Meteor Shower, featuring about 10-15 visible events per hour -- as seen under clear, dark skies -- peaks this year around Wednesday, November 4. Best times for viewing are approximately 10pm to 3am. Individual meteors belonging to this shower are relatively slow-moving (they're caused by particles burning up ...
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The End of Daylight Savings Time
By Jerry Schad - October 31, 2009, 10:33 p.m.
Daylight Savings Time Ends this Sunday morning, November 1, at 2am. With the resumption of standard time, midday (the time when the sun reaches its maximum altitude in the south part of the sky) will again be close to 12 noon on our clocks, rather than 1pm, as before. ...
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Autumn Trends
By Jerry Schad - October 21, 2009, 11:13 p.m.
The Planet Jupiter gleams high in the southern sky after dark during the entire month of October. Jupiter's Galilean satellites, the four largest and brightest moons circling the planet, can be easily observed this month using equipment as simple as firmly supported, high-power binoculars. First noted by Galileo in 1609, ...
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The Orionid Meteor Shower Happening Now
By Jerry Schad - October 20, 2009, 8:09 p.m.
The Orionid Meteor Shower peaks on the evening of Tuesday, October 20 and the morning of October 21. Viewing of this relatively minor meteor shower will start when Orion rises (around 10pm). Meteor rates will continue to rise into the wee hours of the 21st, when 20 to 30 meteors ...
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Crescent Moon Tonight
By Jerry Schad - October 19, 2009, 6:02 p.m.
A delicate crescent moon, its cusps diagonally inclined, sinks to the western horizon as twilight fades on Monday evening, October 19. On the following evening, a somewhat more robust crescent moon follows a similar but more delayed trek to the same setting point. From Coronado Beach or Seaport Village, watch ...
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October's Lowest Tides
By Jerry Schad - October 17, 2009, 9:27 a.m.
Coinciding with afternoon hours on sequential days, low tides usher in several months of excellent tidepooling opportunities. A -0.5 foot tide occurs at 3:24pm on Saturday, October 17, a -0.6 foot tide occurs at 4:05pm on the 18th, and a -0.5 foot tide occurs at 4:47pm on the 19th. November ...
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Morning Webs and Autumn Leaves
By Jerry Schad - October 15, 2009, 8:57 a.m.
Spider Webs, decorated with myriads of tiny dew droplets, are a beautiful sight on foggy autumn mornings. Look for them in San Diego's wild canyons and park areas, or in your own backyard. Leaves are beginning to turn in coastal San Diego County's riparian woodland and oak woodland natural ...
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Dance of Three Planets
By Jerry Schad - October 12, 2009, 9:59 p.m.
Venus, Saturn and Mercury, perform an intricate "dance" in the eastern sky at the first light of dawn during the first half of October. Venus, overwhelmingly the brightest of the three, hovers conspicuously a moderate angle above the horizon the entire time. Mercury, barely over the horizon, stays below Venus, ...
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Ground Fog
By Jerry Schad - October 11, 2009, 4:41 p.m.
Dense ground fogs are a trademark of the onset of autumn along San Diego's coastal strip. Fog materializes during the night and early morning hours when moist marine air that has settled in valleys and low areas is chilled below the dew point. These ground fogs are distinct from the ...
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Black Oaks
By Jerry Schad - October 9, 2009, 12:38 p.m.
The tawny hues of the black oak tree are just beginning to highlight the slopes of San Diego County's higher mountains. Named for the dark coloring of its bark, especially when wet, the black oak is the only deciduous oak native to the county. Associating with pines, firs, cedars, various ...
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Chinese Flame Trees
By Jerry Schad - October 7, 2009, 9:40 a.m.
Chinese flame trees are now displaying colorful clusters of orange, reddish, or salmon-pink seed pods. Good specimens line the south end of Balboa Drive in Balboa Park, and Lake Murray Boulevard through San Diego's San Carlos district. Most of the remainder of San Diego's ornamental trees will continue to remain ...
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Sand Heads Offshore
By Jerry Schad - October 6, 2009, 12:01 p.m.
As the beach season winds down, San Diego County's coastline is padded by what is likely the deepest and widest accumulations of sand we'll see this year. Many stretches of the coastline are vulnerable to powerful waves associated with winter storms. This wave action can pull sand off the beaches ...
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Coastal Sage-Scrub
By Jerry Schad - October 1, 2009, 10:21 a.m.
San Diego's Coastal Sage-Scrub Vegetation is now at the very nadir of its growth cycle. Shades of gray and yellow have replaced the bright greens that carpeted many of the still-wild coastal hillsides up until April or May of this year. Sometime within the next several weeks, the first substantial ...
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Smoggy Days Ahead
By Jerry Schad - September 27, 2009, 6:05 p.m.
The smoggiest days of the year are most likely to occur during the next two months. Persistent temperature inversions (warmer air overlying cool marine air) are frequent this time of year. These inversions conspire with the mountainous topography of East County to trap locally generated air pollution under a low-lying ...
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