A Christmas Eve weather front that brought dense fog and rain to areas throughout San Diego County created visibility issues for drivers on the road and caused additional damage to the Ocean Beach Pier, officials said.
Fog was reported from the coastline to the mountain foothills on Tuesday, but National Weather Service officials say the gray skies should clear in metropolitan areas on Christmas Day.
“Going into tomorrow, we’ll have a pretty nice Christmas Day,” said meteorologist Sebastian Westerink.
Tuesday’s weather brought less than an inch of rain to the west-facing mountains of the county and created slick roads as people drove to their holiday destinations.
“There’s a combination of rain and low visibility on the roads that’s going to impact travel,” Westerink said. “Cars should keep a safe distance between vehicles when visibility gets pretty low so that you can see the car in front.”
In addition to wet conditions, Westerink said wind and high gusts would affect high-profile vehicles, such as big rigs.
“Sometimes you’ll see a high-profile vehicle tip over with the highest wind gusts, so situations like that, with the combination of low visibility and crosswinds, creates issues on the road,” Westerink said.
In areas such as Campo and other mountain communities, commuters were seeing wind speeds around 30 to 35 mph Tuesday, according to Westerink. Spots around Interstate 8, especially near ridge tops, saw gusts of 50 to 60 mph, the meteorologist said.
Patchy fog was forecast for after 10 p.m. in the city.
The National Weather Service also issued a high surf advisory” until 10 a.m. Thursday for the county’s coastal communities. Large swells battered the shuttered Ocean Beach Pier Tuesday, resulting in another concrete piling being wiped away.
The city announced in August the 58-year-old pier wouldn’t reopen, after an engineer’s report found that stabilizing damage from last winter’s storms — when the first piling broke — would be too costly. The city is currently working on a renewal project to hopefully replace it.
Beachgoers and surfers were advised to keep their distance — at least 75 feet — from the pier, both while in the water and on the sand.
Meteorologists forecast breaking waves of 6 to 10 feet, with some reaching as high as 13 feet. Waves were expected to diminish late Wednesday into Thursday for southwest-facing beaches, but surf 5 to 8 feet would linger for west-facing beaches through Thursday morning.
The weather was expected to break later Tuesday evening and bring clear skies throughout the region, Westerink said.
“Overall, temperatures on Wednesday are going to be pretty seasonal to average, mainly in the mid-to-low 60s for San Diego and areas east of urban San Diego,” Westerink said. “And then we’re looking to build up high pressure and see gradual warming up in temperatures.”
