My artichokes are looking weird this year

My cluster of plants has about 20 globes on it right now but about 2/3 of them look like this. Google wasn’t exactly helpful. The gray parts don’t feel like a fungus,it feels very dry. I’ve had these for 6 years now and I’ve never had this happen. The rest of the plant looks healthy. I live in zone 9b. Coastal Northern California. Can anyone tell me what’s happening here?