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I've been to Palm Springs many times. The marine influence is next to nothing in the summer.
No where in the Central Valley nor in the Cochella Valley gets the kind of cooling Sacramento gets in the Summer, except for Stockton.
1. The Sacramento Delta is a huge gap in the California Coast Range, and regularly drops temps 25-30 degrees every night in Sac in the summer, you don't get this type of cooling in Palm Springs nor in Fresno, nor in Bakersfield. Fresno and Palm Springs do not average summer morning temps in the upper 50's like Sacramento.
2. The Pacific along the NorCal coast from SF on up is much cooler than the Central or Southern Coast which means the cooling it provides inland is much cooler, more consistent and reliable and more dramatic in the cooling that it provides, and Sacramento receives a direct hit from this Air Conditioner.
3. There are no gaps in the Coast Range to cool Fresno directly in the summer; if and when there is cooling it comes from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and has to travel 170-210 miles which has practically zero affect on Fresno.
4. There are no major gaps in the California Coast Range south of the Bay Area that provide any reliable marine cooling in the summer to the San Joaquin Valley.
Marine influence is diminished by the time it gets to Palm Springs but acts to level off the temps after 1PM. It's still hot but winds blow through the region from the ocean.
There are smaller gaps south of the Delta along the way to Bakersfield by the coast range. Fresno gets its cooling from marine influence to the southwest from near Santa Maria/Santa Barbara. The same goes for Bakersfield. When the marine layer is deeper, it just ride down all the down to the south Central Valley with brisk northwest winds.
It's interesting how the air flows in all those areas. If you could visualize it in your head, it's like a fan. Spanning those areas, it cools from the breeze but then decreases in intensity the father away you move from the source. An example would be measuring the difference in degrees from Ripon and Modesto, which is really only a little over ten miles away. Then, do the same between Lodi and Lockeford, which is nearly nine miles away. Same for areas east of Sacramento. It stays pretty warm until you begin to climb in elevation.
I guess when you've lived in one area for as long as I have, not only do you know every back road, you know which area receives the cool breeze in summer months. A handy bit of information to know.
Good analogy about a Fan. The Carquinez straight being the center of the fan, or San Pablo Bay. There are areas that you would think get a full dose of the Delta Breeze but don't always receive it and places further northeast or southeast are cooler.
Fairfield gets the full brunt of the Delta Breeze almost always. But just 10 miles to the northeast, Vacaville is hit or miss in receiving it and often places further northeast like Sacramento and Davis, and places much further to the Southeast like Lodi and Stockton receive it more often than Vacaville. Vacaville is blocked but a set hills which keep the Delta Breeze out and it sits slight too far northeast of the path of the Delta Breeze.
Regarding Tracy(San Joaquin Valley) is it like Fairfield in that it gets a full doze consistently or is it more like Vacaville?
Good analogy about a Fan. The Carquinez straight being the center of the fan, or San Pablo Bay. There are areas that you would think get a full dose of the Delta Breeze but don't always receive it and places further northeast or southeast are cooler.
Fairfield gets the full brunt of the Delta Breeze almost always. But just 10 miles to the northeast, Vacaville is hit or miss in receiving it and often places further northeast like Sacramento and Davis, and places much further to the Southeast like Lodi and Stockton receive it more often than Vacaville. Vacaville is blocked but a set hills which keep the Delta Breeze out and it sits slight too far northeast of the path of the Delta Breeze.
Regarding Tracy(San Joaquin Valley) is it like Fairfield in that it gets a full doze consistently or is it more like Vacaville?
Your observation about Vacaville is interesting. It's true, when I think of it. It will remain hot there while areas around Stockton and Tracy will be cooler. You have me curious now. I'm going to have to research that a little more.
As to your question about Tracy. Tracy gets the wind. More so than say Manteca, Stockton or Lodi. We used to joke that Tracy was a "Little Chicago." You could always count on the wind blowing come graduation time. EVERY single year, the wind was blowing on graduation night. The winds started to pick up around the middle of May and continued on until the end of June. And while it blew there, you'd find nothing over in Manteca. It was crazy. I never understood why but my guess would be having to do with the Altamont Pass and how close the town sat to it.
There were times during the summer when it would just stay hot. Usually in August but for the most part, it would always cool down at night, making it perfect for sleeping. Can't stand to sleep with the a/c on and windows closed during summer. ick
I've been to Palm Springs many times. The marine influence is next to nothing in the summer.
No where in the Central Valley nor in the Cochella Valley gets the kind of cooling Sacramento gets in the Summer, except for Stockton.
1. The Sacramento Delta is a huge gap in the California Coast Range, and regularly drops temps 25-30 degrees every night in Sac in the summer, you don't get this type of cooling in Palm Springs nor in Fresno, nor in Bakersfield. Fresno and Palm Springs do not average summer morning temps in the upper 50's like Sacramento.
2. The Pacific along the NorCal coast from SF on up is much cooler than the Central or Southern Coast which means the cooling it provides inland is much cooler, more consistent and reliable and more dramatic in the cooling that it provides, and Sacramento receives a direct hit from this Air Conditioner.
3. There are no gaps in the Coast Range to cool Fresno directly in the summer; if and when there is cooling it comes from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and has to travel 170-210 miles which has practically zero affect on Fresno.
4. There are no major gaps in the California Coast Range south of the Bay Area that provide any reliable marine cooling in the summer to the San Joaquin Valley.
Fresno doesn't anywhere near as chilly as Sacramento during summer nights. Not sure what would make someone say that. There is absolutely no marine influence anywhere near Palm Springs nor near it. Not with night temperatures in summer that can stay in the 90's.
Your observation about Vacaville is interesting. It's true, when I think of it. It will remain hot there while areas around Stockton and Tracy will be cooler. You have me curious now. I'm going to have to research that a little more.
As to your question about Tracy. Tracy gets the wind. More so than say Manteca, Stockton or Lodi. We used to joke that Tracy was a "Little Chicago." You could always count on the wind blowing come graduation time. EVERY single year, the wind was blowing on graduation night. The winds started to pick up around the middle of May and continued on until the end of June. And while it blew there, you'd find nothing over in Manteca. It was crazy. I never understood why but my guess would be having to do with the Altamont Pass and how close the town sat to it.
There were times during the summer when it would just stay hot. Usually in August but for the most part, it would always cool down at night, making it perfect for sleeping. Can't stand to sleep with the a/c on and windows closed during summer. ick
Vacaville - is a good example of why Bay Folks think it's so hot further inland. On I-80 the temp will often be 10 to 15 agrees hotter on average at anytime of the day and night in Vacaville compared to Fairfield so as you travel east from the Bay, Vacaville feels pretty far inland and the temp gauge on your car will be quite high so you assume everything east of it will be as hot or hotter, but not the case.
Vacaville is blocked by a set of hills which keep the Delta Breeze out and it sits slightly too far northeast of the path of the Delta Breeze.
Often there will be no wind, no cool Delta Breeze in Vacaville while 25-30 miles east of Vacaville the cooling winds are blowing in West Sac and Sacramento and its 10 degrees cooler. Basically, if you are on the far eastern side of the Coast Range and blocked by hills or mountains like Vacaville you will miss out on the cooling from the Delta Breeze.
So within the San Joaquin Valley south of Tracy is there a town similar to Vacaville that you would think gets a full doze of the Delta Breeze but doesn't?
I've been trying to think of any town south of Tracy that would resemble Vacaville but coming up short. I thought maybe Patterson but have to say I haven't spent much time there. That was one community I was never interested in knowing more about and now that I'm older and live nearly an hour away, I'm not even a bit curious about it. There's a big Amazon distribution center there now so the population has increased but it's still got a weird vibe to it.
One thing I wanted to mention but never did is that the amount of agriculture that surrounds any area will greatly affect the temperature. I recall the distinct drop in temps when I was driving down Corral Hollow Rd, just outside the city limits. Due to the farms that surrounded our home, on days when farmers were irrigating, the temperature at our place might be as much as 10 degrees different than that in town. You could feel it when you were driving with the windows down. It was like someone turned on the a/c in the car ... there was that much of a difference. I know some don't like country living but I loved it. And not just for the weather.
Last edited by JGC97; 05-16-2017 at 06:15 PM..
Reason: spelling
in general unless you live by the coast, 3-5 degrees differences when its in the upper 90s-100 sac, fresno, tracy, patterson, bakersfield, whatever. we all suffering. If you live in of those places, hope you didn't buy when it was at the peak of the housing prices, and that you can afford to build a nice pool in your backyard.
Merced is 97.1/60.9 low and 95.3/58.9 low (July august)
Stockton is 93.4/60.0 92.2/59.2 (July august)
Merced is hotter in the day yet cools down more at night than Stockton does, but its an hour south of Stockton. How is this possible without marine influence?
Fresno is almost 2 degrees warmer than bako in the middle of summer, yet is almost 3 degrees cooler at night.
Fresno doesn't anywhere near as chilly as Sacramento during summer nights. Not sure what would make someone say that. There is absolutely no marine influence anywhere near Palm Springs nor near it. Not with night temperatures in summer that can stay in the 90's.
None ever claimed it cooled down as much as sac, just that it gets a marine influence at night for most of the summer. Of course, its not a guarantee that the fresno night breezes will come, but sac delta breezes arent guaranteed either.
Fresno cools off 30+ degrees at night, that's not bad. New York city, right off the ocean, cools off just 24 degrees at night.
Edit : Sacramento cools off 32 degrees in the mid summer avg with wiki. Fresno 31 degrees avg.
Sac doesn't heat up as much in the day, so its nights end up cooler. Going by averages here, not cherry picked stats.
Palm springs cools down 30 degrees in the dead of summer. Phoenix cools off 23-24 degrees
Merced is 97.1/60.9 low and 95.3/58.9 low (July august)
Stockton is 93.4/60.0 92.2/59.2 (July august)
Merced is hotter in the day yet cools down more at night than Stockton does, but its an hour south of Stockton. How is this possible without marine influence?
Fresno is almost 2 degrees warmer than bako in the middle of summer, yet is almost 3 degrees cooler at night.
Tell me, chim.. You got the answers.
THAT is really interesting, Flovis. I'm not familiar with too many of the restions south of Turlock so learning this is pretty cool. Now I'm curious if the reason for such a cool down comes from the marine air, agriculture or both. If you know why, would love to have you share it.
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If you know why, would love to have you share it. 
