San Diego County’s 10-day stretch of fair weather is likely to continue into the middle of next week, largely due to periodic Santa Ana winds and a lack of moisture from the North Pacific, the National Weather Service says.
Long dry spells aren’t unusual during the winter in San Diego, even ones that last more than a couple of weeks. They usually don’t cause much of a stir unless the region is very dry, elevating the risk of wildfire. That isn’t the case at the moment.
San Diego International Airport has recorded 7.80 inches of precipitation since the rainy season began on Oct. 1. That’s 3.81 inches above average. Heavy rains fell statewide from just before Christmas to just after New Year’s Day. California is completely free of drought for the first time in 25 years.
The sky was so clear shortly after midnight on Thursday that many people across Southern California were able to see the SpaceX Dragon capsule soar overhead en route to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of San Diego. The capsule carried four astronauts, one of whom had an unspecified medical issue that led the crew to leave the International Space Station early and return to Earth.