Written by: Maren Hale

Hub researcher Dr. Rachel Clemesha, along with colleagues including Hub researcher Dr. Sasha Gershunov, recently published a new article entitled “North American Monsoon Impacts Southern California’s Coastal Low Clouds” in the June 28th issue of Geophysical Research Letters. This article represents the first published work as part of the CoPe SoCal Heat Hub.

The paper describes the influence of the North American Monsoon (NAM) pattern on the iconic “May Gray/June Gloom” summer cloudiness experienced along the coast of California. The research team found that the increase in moisture above the tops of low clouds, which is brought in by summer monsoons, helps contribute to the diminishing of this low-lying cloudiness in Southern California in July, August, and September. This is in contrast to Northern California, where the NAM has less influence, and low clouds tend to persist through August.

To bring attention to this work, Scripps Institution of Oceanography recently conducted a short video interview with Dr. Clemesha about June Gloom, which can be found on Scripps social media. You can find Dr. Clemesha’s paper on the Geophysical Research Letters website here.

Figure from Clemesha et al. illustrating monthly precipitable water at Oakland vs. San Diego.

Header image caption: Dr. Rachel Clemesha on the Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier.