Over 6 Million.

Saturday afternoon image of Irene.  Huge.

Irene is now just a memory, but she has had a lasting effects.  The loss of power for over 6 million people for instance.  The estuaries along the east coast, especially inside the Outer Banks, have taken a serious blow.  It will take some time to determine the extent of the damage.  House in the sea, roads collapsed, city streets flooded.  This was no meager storm.  We could say that many were lucky that Irene decided to mellow a bit just before hitting North Carolina and rolling up the Mid Atlantic Seaboard.  But then again, lucky would have been a hard right hand turn, out to sea, sparing untold loss.

Growing up on the east coast, hurricanes always fascinated and excited us.  Once, Bob ran across Rhode Island and the Cape, and turned back on shore in Maine.  We had a 'cane party, while our wiser parents tied down the fort and headed for safer ground.  It was amazing to see the winds calm and then switch off shore as the eye passed.  And to watch the swells grow from nothing to huge in hours.  And diminish as quickly.  Irene was not a great swell maker for the east coast.  Just too close.  And too destructive to truly appreciate the beauty of the waves.  Still south Florida faired best, and actually missed the rain and the wind from the storm completely.  New Jersey got decent surf on Sunday afternoon after the storm passed north, and smaller swells are impacting Maine this morning.

Smooth single track in Wilder Ranch SP.

Here in Santa Cruz, things remain fairly constant. We continue in the summer pattern of cool foggy nights around 55F and mild sunny afternoons reaching about 70F.  The marine layer if filling back in this week, after a brief warming trend that was experienced in the interior the past few days.  Low lying areas around the Bay should see a fair amount of fog this morning and through the week.  Expect coastal clearing to happen around noon or later.  Some zones will stay foggy all day.  While our local weather is none to interesting, regionally, we see some things happening.

Over the weekend, two waves of a broad low pressure moved through the Gulf of Alaska.  Most of the energy was deflected north, sparing rain for the coast south of the northern tip of Vancouver Island.  Regardless, this was not a typical summer system, and suggests that the north Pacific is coming to life.  This week sees a rebound of the typical high pressure.  But mid range and long range charts do look interesting.  Another series of more defined storms are to begin moving into the Gulf by this weekend and through the early part of next week.  We could even see rain reaching down into Washington by next Wednesday as these storms push ashore.  But that is way to far out to have any confidence in.  Beyond that, on the fantasy models, the east Pacific may have some well defined systems moving off of Kamchatka and slowly filling in across the entire North Pacific.  This would be interesting for mid September, and may be enough to push the first showers of the season across the Tahoe high country.  We will monitor and report back here.

All this talk of storms nearby has got to have some of you thinking about waves.  Yes, we are expecting a little push of NW groundswell to arrive later this week.  We should begin to see some mid period ground swell arrive on Tuesday evening and lasting through Wednesday.  Expect five foot surf or so.  Much better than what we have been getting, but that is nothing compared to the south swell that is right on its heels.  Very long period south swell should arrive mid day Wednesday and building to eight feet (or more at the best locations) on Thursday.  This is a very long period swell and will be packing a tremendous amount of energy compared to its height.  If you plant to venture out in the water the second half of the week, please know what you are doing and be smart.  Waves should begin to taper slightly on Friday and subside over the holiday weekend.  Should be some fun surfing over the next week.  More likely on the way if those storms move through the Gulf this weekend.

Small waves at the top of Pleasure Point.

Just a word of caution to all those gardeners out there. If you are living through the summer in a mild foggy zone like I am, watch out for molds.  Particularly devastating can be tomato late blight.  This fungus can easily take hold in these conditions and destroy your (and your neighbor's) crop.  More information and picture are here.  I mention this here, as we had to pull out one plant recently.  It was sad as this was a wonderful looking paste tomato that I had been excited to try.  I guess we will make green tomato relish instead.  And hopefully we spared the other plants in the yard from having the disease spread to them.  We are in a holding pattern with most of our tomatoes, waiting for the warmth of late September to ripen them up.  On a very positive not, our Sungold 100s do not seem to mild the chill and we are harvesting 1-2 quarts a week.  Let the tomato fest begin.

For now, continued fog.  Heavy at times this week.  Expect the same for the holiday weekend.  If you are looking for sun, head inland.  We will be going to the Sierra to enjoy a few starry nights.  And the recent activity in the Gulf of Alaska gives hope to the change of seasons.  The good news is that before we get rain, we usually get a month or more of the best weather of the year down here by the sea.