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Declining Temps, Santa Anas, and Acorn Dropping

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, and daily minimum temperatures are plummeting by about 1° Fahrenheit. (This gradual onset of fall/winter chill is probably all but unnoticed by most newcomers from harsher climates.) By January, our mean temperature will have fallen to about 55°, from an average temperature of about 70° in August.

Santa Ana Winds in San Diego County often reach their greatest intensity during November, particularly at the mountain passes, where dry air from a high-pressure area over the interior deserts swoops coastward toward a low-pressure area offshore. The subsiding air warms rapidly while it descends, resulting in 80° to 90° temperatures close to the coast. While passing over the mountains, though, the dry air can be surprisingly cool...60° or less in the daytime.

Acorn Dropping reaches a crescendo this month in the Cuyamaca, Laguna, and Palomar mountains. Wiry scrub oaks, massive canyon live oaks, and the golden-leaved black oaks all contribute to the growing collection of acorns littering the ground. Acorn woodpeckers are busy stuffing acorns into the small holes they drill into the bark of pine trees. Beneath the trees, the browns of bracken fern and the reds of poison oak and Indian-basket bush are among the last expressions of autumn color we'll see in the mountains this year.

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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, and daily minimum temperatures are plummeting by about 1° Fahrenheit. (This gradual onset of fall/winter chill is probably all but unnoticed by most newcomers from harsher climates.) By January, our mean temperature will have fallen to about 55°, from an average temperature of about 70° in August.

Santa Ana Winds in San Diego County often reach their greatest intensity during November, particularly at the mountain passes, where dry air from a high-pressure area over the interior deserts swoops coastward toward a low-pressure area offshore. The subsiding air warms rapidly while it descends, resulting in 80° to 90° temperatures close to the coast. While passing over the mountains, though, the dry air can be surprisingly cool...60° or less in the daytime.

Acorn Dropping reaches a crescendo this month in the Cuyamaca, Laguna, and Palomar mountains. Wiry scrub oaks, massive canyon live oaks, and the golden-leaved black oaks all contribute to the growing collection of acorns littering the ground. Acorn woodpeckers are busy stuffing acorns into the small holes they drill into the bark of pine trees. Beneath the trees, the browns of bracken fern and the reds of poison oak and Indian-basket bush are among the last expressions of autumn color we'll see in the mountains this year.

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Acorn dropping crescendo in Cuyamaca, Laguna, and Palomar mountains

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