Christmas in the Subtropics

Yesterday for the third day in a row we could see San Clemente Island clearly off the coast. (This picture was taken a few days ago.) That’s about 50 miles of clear winter air. The temperature has been beautiful and mild, dropping at night to where it’s a wee bit chilly but warming up to around 70 degrees by day. The wind has been nearly calm, which is a nice Christmas gift for a bike rider.

In the picture above, at 50 miles, you can just barely see some kind of antenna array on the highest peak on the island. It almost looks like a defect in the lens or a bird flying by at just the right moment, but it shows up in other frames too.

The tradition is that when you can see San Clemente, it’ll rain within three days. So far, no such thing has been forecast for this week.

Merry Christmas!