Poet James Russell Lowell famously asked, “What’s rarer than a day in June?” This line alludes to the precious nature of the Moon as it marks the transition from spring to summer. Lowell said this is a time we should all cherish.

If so. For those of us who live near the coast of California, there’s a more appropriate and mundane line. “Persistent overland flow patterns will maintain cooler-than-normal weather …as large areas of low pressure are anchored over the ocean,” said the region. “

The meteorologist who wrote it said in the latest edition of the National Weather Service’s forecasting debate that a seemingly endless series of dark, damp days would keep Californians like me awake and asleep for much of May. It warned in cold, scientific language about what would follow. and June.and they soon came California endured the fifth coldest March Ever since record keeping began. So much for “California dreaming on a winter day like this.”

While much of the rest of the Northern Hemisphere was scorching, or even burning, in record heat, California fell into an unusually cool and wet pattern. It was little comfort to know that it was due to the unusually cold Pacific and Pacific Northwest anticyclones.

As you may have guessed, I’m quite the weather geek. Suffice it to say that if he misses even one out of four daily weather updates from the Bureau of Weather, he feels unfulfilled. And I’m not an atmospheric scientist, but I do know enough to dive back in after reading the article “Major storm streams will dominate during the forecast period.”

More important to me and my colleagues in California than the hustle and bustle of the weather was the inability to enjoy early sunrises and late sunsets this season. Day after day, the unrelenting ocean formations greeted us. Its oceanic layers often extended anomalously inland, such as Castaic Lake and Vasquez Rocks. We Southern Californians have, at least temporarily, joined the ranks of world-class cloud-dwellers like the inhabitants of Bogota, Colombia and Bergen, Norway, who have hundreds of cloudy days a year.

Sure, you can expect ‘May grey’ and ‘June gloom’ in California, but what has happened in recent months has been beyond pale.

In the big picture, though, should clouds affect our outlook? Even if you avoid sunbathing and shadow puppet shows, you can still do outdoor activities. People who are concerned about vitamin D can always take supplements instead of sun.

“How can you complain about living in Santa Barbara?” an east coast friend asked me the other day. Indeed, I realize how lucky I am to live in a place where I have so much exposure to the outdoors. Even if the air is always cold around 63 degrees.

But there’s really no substitute for this sphere, which has been making its long-awaited appearance across much of Southern California. The intensity and brilliance of late spring light that illuminates everything it touches cannot be overstated.

Just in time for Wednesday’s summer solstice, Tuesday morning’s discussion of weather forecasts for the region calls for mostly clear skies, “significantly reduced ocean layer coverage,” and “temperatures to rise by 3 to 6 degrees.” A few degrees cooler than normal, but warmer than most days.” in about a month. Even better, the forecast was for “further warming on Wednesday.”

But sadly, it was only expected to be a brief respite until “cool, cloudy weather returns on Thursday or Friday.”

But if there’s one thing this cold, damp blanket of fog has taught me, it’s the importance of patience and acceptance. It is said that even the darkest nights give way to the sun. Perhaps the same is true on the darkest days.

Ernie Cooper is a Santa Barbara-based author and teacher.