April's warmer temperatures and lowest tides

Warmer Temperatures and increased humidity coincide with the subtle onset of San Diego's spring season. By April's end, the intermittent showers, Santa Ana winds, cold nights, and crystalclear, sun-drenched days of winter will likely be distant memories. The nocturnal low overcast hugging the coast, which may linger until the late morning, will gradually build into “June gloom” — the dayslong episodes of perpetual overcast most common during May and June.

The Coastal Wildflower Bloom April's warmer temperatures and low tides will continue through at least mid-April. One of the best places to view the greatest variety of flowers is Torrey Pines State Reserve. San Onofre State Beach, just north of Camp Pendleton, should have acres and acres of monkeyflower, with a half-dozen different shades, blooming on the coastal bluffs. On grassy hillsides in Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve and in Mission Trails Regional Park (especially behind the Old Mission Dam), you will find carpets of California poppies, purple nightshade, pinkish owl's clover, blue-colored lupine, and scattered splashes of color due to a dozen or more other species of wildflowers.

April's Lowest Tides, dropping to -.69 feet, are for afternoon walkers: 2:01 pm on Wednesday the 7th, and 2:35 pm on Thursday the 8th. The highest tide for April (+6.92 feet) occurs at 10:16 p.m. on Tuesday the 27th.

Vega, the bright "Summer Star," rises in the northeast late these evenings. Exactly where should you watch for it to come up? Spot the Big Dipper almost overhead in the northeast. Look at Mizar at the bend of its handle. If you can see Mizar's tiny, close companion Alcor (binoculars show it easily), follow a line from Mizar through Alcor all the way down to the horizon. That's where Vega will make its appearance.

The above comes from the Outdoors listings in the Reader compiled by Jerry Schad, author of Afoot & Afield in San Diego County. Schad died in 2011. Planet information from SkyandTelescope.org.