WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 1999

Winter should end in March

Partly cloudy today after dense morning low clouds and fog. Fog redeveloping tonight. Breezy through the period.

Lows tonight in the 40s. Sound familiar? It should, this has been the forecast for what seems like the past nine months.

OK, May is here and it feels like January. There has yet to be a night that does not require the heater and if you decide to wear shorts to school, you will be sorry when the sun goes down.

Remember when early March marked the beginning of a Southern California summer?

If you've lived here for any amount of time, adjusting to cold weather requires more than just putting on a jacket. It means changing your entire state of mind.

When cold weather rolls in, it is like taking everyone's car away in Los Angeles: No one knows quite what to do.

Our beaches are barren, streets are empty and there is a disproportional amount of people who can rehash the most recent episode of "Felecity." Skating or biking is pointless, unless you want to combat 40 mph winds.

Enough is enough. We do not want to go snowboarding anymore, and carrying a jacket everywhere is getting cumbersome.

And the two days of warm weather a month ago only served as a cruel reminder of how things used to be.

So is all this lack of warm weather going to be made up to us? As pay back, we hope warmer weather will extend its way into November with our characteristic stretches of mid-70s, sun-ladened days.