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Third Heat Wave In A Month Begins Monday In San Diego

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

Temperatures will soar to the upper 80s at the coast and the 102-104 range across some inland valleys on Monday and Tuesday as San Diego County experiences its third heat wave in a month, according to the National Weather Service. The above average temperatures are expected to last until the weekend, and monsoonal moisture could return by mid-week. An excessive heat watch will be in effect for all areas but the coast from 10 a.m. on Monday to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Monday will be the hottest day.

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Over-Billings On Water Meters In San Diego Topped $2 Million

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

When customers started complaining early last year about spiking water bills, authorities downplayed the situation. Water department officials repeatedly said that leaky toilets, broken sprinklers and the rising cost of water were likely to blame, even as customer complaints flooded into the agency’s public hotline for months. However, a recent analysis by the San Diego Union-Tribune has shown that single-family homes serviced by the city’s water department were collectively overcharged by more than $2 million last year — with some residents receiving bills for tens of thousands of dollars.

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Judge Clears Water Authority Delegates To Keep Meeting In Private

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Ricky Young Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A judge has ruled in favor of the San Diego County Water Authority, dismissing a lawsuit by an open government group that wanted the agency to hold certain gatherings of its board members in public. The water authority sends delegates to the Metropolitan Water District, a large regional organization based in Los Angeles. The San Diego water authority delegates meet regularly with no public notice or access — a situation challenged by attorney Cory Briggs in a lawsuit in June 2017. He cited the state’s open meetings law, the Ralph M. Brown Act.

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Temperatures Stay High, But Weekend Brings Humidity Relief

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Robert Krier

San Diego County can expect some humidity relief over the weekend, but that’s about it. “We should have above-normal temperatures for the foreseeable future,” National Weather Service meteorologist Adam Roser said. “The weekend will be slightly cooler, but there’s not much change in the pattern.” Thursday should be last day of high humidity levels and the threat of thunderstorms in the mountains and desert this week. Monsoonal moisture, which contributed to storms that dropped 0.81 of an inch of rain on Mount Laguna and 0.41 in Ranchita on Wednesday, should be in short supply until next week.

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San Diego’s Scripps Pier Records Highest Ocean Temperature In Its 102 Year History

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

The sea surface temperature at the Scripps Pier in La Jolla hit 78.6 degrees on Wednesday, the highest reading in the pier’s 102-year history, according to UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The reading broke the previous record of 78.4 degrees, which was set in 1931. Scripps Oceanography officials say that sea surface temperatures had been running above normal for several days, but the record was not broken until Wednesday. The institute has been taking sea surface temperatures at that spot since August 1916 as part of its scientific research.

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San Diego County Wasn’t Immune To Extreme Weather In July

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Robert Krier

San Diego County didn’t escape the extreme weather happening around the planet in July that produced massive fires above the Arctic Circle, a deadly heat wave in Japan, and a 124 degree day in Algeria believed to the highest temperature ever recorded in Africa. The county had it’s own set of remarkable temperatures that stressed both plants and people. The city of San Diego had its hottest July in a dozen years and its fifth hottest since 1874. The month was 5 degrees warmer than normal, and the 96 degrees recorded on July 6 was the third highest reading ever seen in July.

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Satellite Image Captures The Unusual Warmth Of San Diego’s Coastal Waters

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

Sea surface temperatures in Southern California — especially spots in San Diego like Solana Beach — have been unusually warm for weeks. The National Weather Service issued a computer graphic late Monday that shows where the hottest temperatures are being recorded (the areas in red.) “Water temperatures from lifeguards are 72 to 78F and this is shown in satellite imagery depicting much above normal readings (anomaly) in the California Bight,” the weather service said on Facebook.

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San Diego Water Rates Increase 2 Percent This Week, Part Of Larger Multi-Year Spike

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick

Water rates in San Diego will increase just over 2 percent on Wednesday, part of a five-step incremental spike over four years that will amount to a compounded rate hike of 35 percent. The rate increase comes one week after an audit found 2,750 individual water bills last year were incorrect and had to be readjusted because of errors by meter readers.

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OPINION: In Response: Water Cost Story Missed Key Points

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Mark Muir Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Re “County water move has its costs” (July 1): The San Diego Union-Tribune addressed an important regional question on whether the San Diego County Water Authority’s decades-long strategy to create a reliable portfolio of water supplies is worth the cost. Unfortunately, the story omitted clear-cut evidence that the region’s supply reliability strategy is an unqualified success: Our independent water supplies from the Colorado River are both less expensive and more reliable than supplies from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which have been cut twice in the past decade by drought.

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OPINION: Don’t Just Blame The Meter Readers For San Diego’s Water Billing Scandal

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

A new report from City Auditor Eduardo Luna about erroneous water bills serves as a clear indictment of the city’s Public Utilities Department. It detailed how 2,750 water bills sent to residents in 2017 were incorrect, often by hundreds of dollars, and that the problem stemmed from mistakes made by the city’s 36 meter readers — 10 of whom were to blame for 71 percent of the errors. Luna’s audit noted that just in the month of December, one meter reader was responsible for about 330 mistakes. That person no longer works for the city, which is a relief.

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