Clouds, chill, high heat and … what the hail? All in one 66-mile drive to and from L.A.

We’re used to time-bending drives in Southern California, watching our ETAs get longer as a substitute of shorter as site visitors jams develop. So I used to be resigned however not stunned when my 66-mile drive from Ventura to Elysian Park stretched from 86 minutes to 100 minutes Thursday afternoon.

What I didn’t anticipate was hail. On the primary day of August. Round 2:25 p.m. After driving by almost 100 levels within the San Fernando Valley.

Now you already know why I’ve seven sweatshirts and jackets in my automobile. Always.

Extra weirdly, my journey began with temperatures within the low 70s in Ventura, the place the spring and a great chunk of the summer season have been cool and overcast. We’ve had some beautiful blue-sky days in late July with temperatures within the low 80s, however Thursday, the clouds have been again for a great a part of the day.

Once I took my stroll that morning the temperature was within the low 60s, chilly sufficient to warrant a sweatshirt. However by 12:45 p.m., after I headed into L.A., it was round 70 levels. I anticipated it to be a great 10 levels hotter, so I wore shorts and a sleeveless shirt for my stroll by Elysian Park whereas reporting on a narrative.

As anticipated, by the point I climbed the Conejo Go on the 101 Freeway heading east, the temperature climbed shortly.

I couldn’t inform this inside my automobile in fact, due to air-con, however my temperature sensor started climbing to the excessive 80s in Thousand Oaks and by the point I drove by Tarzana, the gauge learn 99 levels, simply 45 miles from the place I’d began.

I anticipated the temperature to remain within the 90s as I headed east, however as a substitute the skies clouded up and the temperature started dropping, right down to the low 80s.

And about 2:25 p.m. as I handed Forest Garden Cemetery within the Hollywood Hills on the 134 Freeway, tiny white balls started pelting my wildshield. They have been smaller than the smallest peas, however onerous sufficient to make staccato tap-tap-taps as they struck my windshield and melted into tiny droplets of water.

By the point I reached the West Loop Trailhead in Elysian Park 20 minutes later, the skies have been damaged clouds, so I grabbed my sweatshirt, making certain, in fact, that the solar would escape a short while later.

The drive dwelling round 5:30 p.m. was predictably sluggish however comparatively uneventful weather-wise.

In the meantime a protracted warmth wave is sweeping by inland areas of the state. My one bizarre climate day isn’t indicative of a wider development — the Nationwide Climate Service famous a “seemingly unending warmth wave” in July — however is exemplary of the microclimates we expertise in Southern California. It could be triple digits in a single spot, hailing momentarily in one other.

One good factor about driving west, nevertheless, is a entrance row seat to spectacular sunsets. There have been nonetheless clouds, however so wispy they’d an iridescent sheen like spun sugar.

And the sundown — bits of clouds turned deep salmon pink and plum — didn’t disappoint.