People complain about the cloudy coast this time of year and I just have to shrug. I want a healthy marine layer, stubborn and robust. It's practically a character in Raymond Chandler novels, reaching from the beaches to downtown streets. But to my eye, it's been fading over the years, and in Southern California, less moisture is never good news.

So far June has had more sunny than cloudy days, and the marine layer that does form is pretty flimsy. Right now it's burning off, sun shining through, humidity dropping, temperatures headed up.