Arroyo Grande man plans to swim 6.2 miles without wetsuit

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• SLO resident makes long haul back from injury to her goal

  SLO resident makes long haul back from injury to her goal

  In the early morning hours of Nov. 20, Karen Aydelott pulled on her wetsuit, tugged on two swim caps and got ready to plunge into the 61-degree waters of Arizona’s Tempe Town Lake with about 2,640 other people.

  Aydelott, of San Luis Obispo, had arrived at the starting area of Ironman Arizona at 5 a.m., the same time the transition area opened for the long-distance triathlon.

  Around her, hundreds of triathletes double-checked their gear and prepared for the start of a grueling race that includes a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run, in that order.

• One for the books: Yudovin’s feats

  One for the books: Yudovin’s feats

  In his 36-year open-ocean channel swimming career, Cambria resident David Yudovin, 60, has defeated high waves, cold water, deadly whirlpools and thousands of jellyfish stings, along with leukemia and a heart attack.

  After the last of his three most recent, history-making swims — all done at the equator within a dozen days in October —Yudovin was close to death again after taking on a common but potentially fatal opponent.

  He defeated that one, too.

• Pismo Beach votes to increase lifeguards' pay

  Pismo Beach votes to increase lifeguards' pay

  The Pismo Beach City Council has voted to give lifeguards a pay increase in an effort to attract and retain qualified candidates for the seasonal jobs.

  The city offers one of the lowest starting wages for lifeguards compared to four other local agencies with similar programs and job requirements, according to city Human Resources Officer Debra Garcia.

  Entry-level pay for a lifeguard in Pismo Beach starts at $11.19 an hour, with a pay increase each year up to a maximum of $13.43. The raise approved unanimously Tuesday by the council will increase the starting pay for entry-level lifeguards to $13.20 an hour.

• When taken collectively, raindrops pack a punch

  When taken collectively, raindrops pack a punch

  Raindrops are tiny — typically less than 5 millimeters in diameter — and come in a lot of different sizes and shapes, but collectively they can deliver a huge amount of water.

  As they fall from the sky, their journey has only begun. Typically, as they rush through the air they often flatten into a saucer shape and later contour into an upside-down bowl profile before bursting into smaller droplets.

  If a storm produces just 1 inch of rain over 1 square mile, that adds up to about 17.4 million gallons of water. The same inch of rain delivered over the entire County of San Luis Obispo would total about 63 billion gallons. Now consider the storm that occurred on March 9 and 10, 1995, which produced recorded 24-hour rainfall totals ranging from 3.4 inches in Pismo Beach, to 11.6 inches in Santa Margarita. That’s a lot of water indeed!

• Clear, dry skies made for wacky winter

  Clear, dry skies made for wacky winter

  This was a wacky winter. Warmer than usual during the day, extra chilly at night, which put the well-known microclimates of San Luis Obispo County in sharp focus. Causing all the wackiness was an unusually high amount of northeasterly offshore winds coupled with many days of clear and dry winter skies.

  I’ll give you a few examples.

  Since 1948, Paso Robles has averaged a minimum overnight temperature of 34.9 degrees. This winter it averaged a bone-chilling 31.4 degrees, or about 3.5 degrees colder than normal. The city’s average maximum temperature is 60.8 degrees, while this winter it was 64.4 degrees. As you might expect, the overall average temperature was a normal 47.8 degrees, with the cold nights canceling out the warm days.