Coastal areas with noticeably less marine layer (San Diego, San Francisco: real estate, city hall)

[skyway31]

The “marine layer”, or low lying cloud cover along the coast, is a dominant feature of the climate from Mexico all the way up the pacific coast to Canada. All coastal areas receive a good bit of overcast, especially during late spring (May and June). There are some areas that do get noticeably less, often due (I think) to being south facing beaches. I know that the stretch from San Pedro through Long Beach and the northern half of Huntington Beach often remains sunny while the coast north and south (east and west) of them are socked in. I’ve heard something similar in exists in Santa Cruz compared to Monterey and SF. Perhaps also in Santa Barbara compared to Ventura etc. I ask because I’m trying to compare the frequency of overcast in Santa Barbara, where I’ve only visited and never lived, with places like Newport Beach, Santa Monica etc. This is actually a very difficult thing to gauge as most people really only know the area they live. They wrongly assume everywhere else is identical.

Can anyone speak to differences in overcast hours between places within 1-2 miles of the coastline?

[cruitr]

Originally Posted by skyway31

Can anyone speak to differences in overcast hours between places within 1-2 miles of the coastline?

I sure hope you get some good answers. The marine layer sure limits our solar power production.

[leastprime]

Pacific City OR. Nestucca River Flood Plain and the Van Duzer-Little Nestucca Pass over the Coastal range.
The fog bank generally occurs when there is a high temp in the Willamette Valley which extends over the coast range thru the pass into the coast. The fog bank will hang at the beach and maybe a 1-10 hundred yards inland. Rare will it go 10 hundred, mostly a 1-3 hundred. If it does extend, the height is only 20-40 feet. As the temperature differential increases, I see the beach wind S->N is strong and a heavy jacket is needed. However, a few hundred yards inland, the weather is warm, clear, and windless. When the temperature differential falls apart in the afternoon and evening, the fog mores inland and breaks apart easily within 1000 yards of the ocean.

from the Willamette Valley side: As the air heats up, it rises which becomes pronounced around 2-3pm time in Salem OR, ~35 miles from the VanDuzer Coastal pass (~650 ft) . This rising air creates a vacuum on the valley floor which pulls in the cooler coastal air. Around 3 pm, there is a strong western wind at Grand Ronde Casino, and by 4 pm it will crest over the Eola hills (1200ft elevation). Oddly just 1-2 miles away at the Willamette River (50 ft) which is between the Eola Hills (N) and the Illahe Hills (S), will only have a slight wind if any. Apparently the cold air draw stays above the valley's floor air layer.


Here is a 24 hour beach cam at Pacific City: Haystack Rock is about 1500 yards off the shore. The Cape is about 800 yards from the webcam.
Pacific City Webcam and is about 200 yards off the beach.
you need to reference the time of observance to Salem Ore.
Wunderground.com will give you reporting amateur weather stations.

[kauailover]

Yes there are areas along the coast that the marine layer (fog) settles in and often never clears for days on end. Take Aptos in Santa Cruz county for instance. It is often the last area to clear (burn off) the fog and often doesn't clear at all, while just a few miles to the North in Santa Cruz it is clear by noon.

I remember many summers that the entire month of July was mostly foggy living in Santa Cruz county. We would often drive to Gilroy to shop and it would be in the 80's. Same thing goes for the Monterey area and Moss Landing. Just a short drive inland towards Salinas or Carmel Valley and you're in the Sun.

[tikkasf]

Not much sun this summer in the western neighborhoods of SF. Cool, overcast days are nothing during the summer in these neighborhoods in SF......just seems it has been a bit more so this summer

[skyway31]

Sorry, I meant for this thread to be about coastal areas with less marine layer, or, in other words, more sunshine. I'm looking for the exceptions to the rule. I'm interested in comparing Santa Barbara's typical amount of overcast as compared to other prominent coastal areas in California.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by skyway31

Sorry, I meant for this thread to be about coastal areas with less marine layer, or, in other words, more sunshine. I'm looking for the exceptions to the rule. I'm interested in comparing Santa Barbara's typical amount of overcast as compared to other prominent coastal areas in California.

I would check Wikipedia for average annual sunshine hours, but in general, yes, South facing beaches on the west coast get less wind and marine layer. Brookings, OR is another example. Santa Cruz is much sunnier and warmer than Monterey too.

[skyway31]

Originally Posted by tstieber

I would check Wikipedia for average annual sunshine hours, but in general, yes, South facing beaches on the west coast get less wind and marine layer. Brookings, OR is another example. Santa Cruz is much sunnier and warmer than Monterey too.

Unfortunately, those statistics are extremely hard-perhaps impossible- to come by for the coast specifically. For example, San Francisco shows a very high number of sunny days, but that's because the location(s) where stats are recorded are several miles away from the coast. And then for smaller cities/towns, often that data isn't available. But, it does seem to be a good bet that Santa Barbara may fare better than even coastal San Diego or Orange county due to it having an extended south-facing coastline.

[shelato]

Originally Posted by skyway31

Unfortunately, those statistics are extremely hard-perhaps impossible- to come by for the coast specifically. For example, San Francisco shows a very high number of sunny days, but that's because the location(s) where stats are recorded are several miles away from the coast. And then for smaller cities/towns, often that data isn't available. But, it does seem to be a good bet that Santa Barbara may fare better than even coastal San Diego or Orange county due to it having an extended south-facing coastline.

Its more complicated than that. I was born in Ventura and we lived not too far from Kimball Rd and Telegraph Rd in Ventura. My dad at this time was working as a Pharmacist at a Thrifty that was located Mills and Telegraph in what is today the Pacific View Mall. But the Marine layer used to roll in much later in the afternoon and burn off much quicker in the morning at my parents house than at where my dad worked. When the marine layer was at its thickest, it wouldn't burn off at all where my dad worked but it would be sunny at home.

The problem with these statistics is where in a given city are they pulling the data? Depending on where you pick the data off Telegraph Rd, Ventura could seem like a very sunny city or a very overcast one. I think you could do the same with most of these coastal cities. If they pulled data from city hall in all of these cities, you might be measuring the effect of distance of city hall from the ocean rather than the underlying difference between these various cities.

That said if your goal is to find a place that is more sunny in a coastal city, I would look for a part of the city that is more inland. I am sure if you really liked living in Santa Barbara your real estate agent could show you your options there and if you were interested in Ventura, your agent could show you, your options there. There are coastal cities like Carpinteria where they are too small to not have any location that won't have a thick Marine layer and there are cities near the coast so the climate is still pleasant but far enough away where you never really have to deal with the marine layer like say Ojai, Oak View or Santa Paula.

[NORTY FLATZ]

If the "South facing" beaches were less foggy, then Malibu would be clearer than adjacent areas. (And, it might be.)

I think an even larger factor would be mountains that rise right from the shore. The fog generally won't go over higher elevations as easily as it envelopes valleys.