Labor Day weekend is the unofficial end of summer, with many people heading to the beaches to get their last few days of warm weather, but that might not be the case for beaches in Santa Barbara County.
Gloomy skies and sprinkles of rain put a damper on some people’s Labor Day plans in Santa Barbara County. The weather is definitely not what Steve Lesieur and his family were expecting after making the 330-mile drive from San Francisco.
“It has been so hot and muggy that actually today it feels like it's cooled off and the rain kind of maybe dampened all the humidity," Lesieur said.
But the scattered showers on Sunday didn’t stop Lesieur and his family from spending time on the beach.
“We're just trying to figure out how much it was going to rain," he said. "Hopefully it's not going to hold us back from doing stuff outside, which is why we come to Santa Barbara.”
Hurricane Marie is moving north offshore of California but it’s still bringing unusual weather to SoCal and parts of Santa Barbara County. KSBY meteorologist Vivian Rennie said we’re feeling the outer bands of moisture related to, but not the actual storm.
On Sunday, there was a 20% chance of rain in Montecito.
Elizabeth Brooks and Rick Wolf were both born and raised in Santa Barbara County. They said in the decades they’ve lived here, it’s rare to see tropical influence like this.
“The humidity has been unbearable because it's always very cool, you know, not warm," Brooks said. "It's hot, but usually not like this.”
The National Weather Service has put out a beach hazard statement that is set to last until September 8. It's due to an increased risk of drowning from dangerous rip currents, due in part to the high surf that's expected to hit.
Brooks and Wolf said that despite that, they’ve seen surfers hitting the waves all day.
“I think people should be careful about the undertow and the river and that kind of thing, because the waves get big and they start to pull hard coming back out," Wolf said.
Lesieur said this out-of-the-ordinary weather is an indication of the current state of the climate.
“We're commenting on how warm the water has been; the fact that the water is like above 70 degrees in the summer in Santa Barbara is it's never been like that," Lesieur said. "It's the fact that it's 80 degrees in San Diego. It feels like things are different than they used to be.”
