Outdoors
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, …
Autumn Color in San Diego County’s mountain areas reaches its greatest intensity in late October and early November. The forested heights of Palomar Mountain are especially colorful right now. Black oaks on Palomar’s rolling uplands …
Leaves Are Beginning to Turn in coastal San Diego County’s riparian woodland and oak woodland habitats. The summer-green crowns of willows and sycamores are already fading to yellow and brown. Beneath the oaks, the deciduous …
The Silk Floss Tree, a conspicuous “autumn bloomer” here and there around San Diego, has been showing off its pinkish (or purplish) hibiscus-like flowers for at least a month now. The broad, heavy trunks of …
Chinese Flame Trees all over the San Diego region are 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 …
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 …
San Diego’s Coastal SageScrub Vegetation is now at the very nadir of its growth cycle. But the late-summer rain we had a few weeks ago shattered the usual summer drought, and our “summer-deciduous” vegetation bounced …
As the Beach Season Winds Down, San Diego County’s coastline is padded by what are likely the deepest and widest accumulations of sand we’ll see this year. Many stretches of the coastline are vulnerable to …
Fall Officially Begins at 8:09 pm local time on Wednesday, September 22 — a good excuse to throw an impromptu evening party to celebrate the occasion. At equinox, the sun shines directly on the Earth’s …
The Time of Sunset changes most rapidly this time of the year. This is mainly because the sun is swinging rapidly south along the ecliptic (its apparent path through the background stars). From the latitude …
The Chaparral, the tangled assortment of low-growing, drought-resistant, native shrubs covering most of San Diego County’s lower mountain slopes, has managed to remain fairly attractive this summer. Unlike many of the scrubby natives near the …