Dear Tom,
Why is it that San Diego’s temperatures are always perfect? In the summer it doesn’t get too much more than 85 (degrees), or much below 55 (degrees) in the winter.
Kanchi Shah (age 10), Elmhurst Ill.
Dear Kanchi,
San Diego’s year-around moderate temperatures stand as a testament to the overwhelming influence of the Pacific Ocean. San Diego enjoys a marine climate.
The west coast of North America is bathed by the California Current, a gentle stream of cool water, several hundred miles in width, that travels southbound parallel to the coastline. Water temperatures off southern California hover in the 50s and 60s summer and winter. Air blowing across that water tends to acquire those temperatures, and that is the air that spreads into San Diego (gradually warming as is moves inland).
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
