I won’t address weather in any other area, but as to here in California, this is a flat out lie. Persistent high pressure, known as “the California high” is the weather pattern here. Here in Northern California, when the high is a alittle less, we get cooling via the delta breeze coming from the Pacific. Fairly frequently in the high country, rarely in the lowlands, monsoonal moisture streaming from the south will bring thunderstorms. Our winter pattern, storms coming in off the Pacific, is rare enough in the summer to say that it essentially doesn’t happen from about June 15 to September 15. Weather this summer here in no California has been absolutely typical, indeed less hot than last summer. PS “spree” used in the context of this article is a pretty awkward usage. I guess this joker doesn’t have an editor