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It's 34 degrees here in OC right now, just like yesterday morning. I'm sitting here all bundled up with the heater all the way up and drinking hot drinks. And this is after sitting in my sauna. I also had to sit in the sauna last night.
yeah you picked the only days this summer oops I meant WINTER (LOL) that were cold.
Today it's like 75+ outside and it's been like this all month and last month except for just a couple days.
Take note of when I made this post - EARLY JANUARY!
Dry is good. No one has ever said "I'd like a little humidity".
They move to those areas, not because of the weather, but because those states are impossibly cheaper than CA. People are also moving to Arizona/Nevada/Texas, horrendously awful weather. The weather in any of those states really suck but housing is massively cheaper and they are being priced out of California.
To debate California weather versus any other state is pointless. Those other states can't compete. Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico? Please. Good weather is not synonymous with any of those states. People move to those states for reasons other than weather such as good traffic/job housing market. It's cheap because so few people live in those states.
To be fair, good weather is not synonymous with California, either. It’s not as if the entire state of California is identical weather-wise to Southern California, because it definitely is not. Obviously Sacramento and Fresno have much different climate and weather patterns compared to San Francisco and Santa Barbara. Bakersfield is much different from San Luis Obispo. And even Southern California has vastly different weather extremes and climates depending on where you happen to be. Compare Santa Monica with Rancho Cucamonga or Anaheim with Hemet. Compare Malibu with Woodland Hills or Whittier with Big Bear City.
Parts of inland So. Cal rival the heat in summer that you’d experience in many Midwestern states. I think the so-called “ideal” or “perfect” So. Cal weather generally gets applied to only that very narrow strip of land along the coastline. But many assume that the coastal So. Cal weather represents the weather for all of So. Cal, which it definitely doesn’t. Living in Seal Beach is vastly different weather and climate-wise to living in Riverside.
To be fair, good weather is not synonymous with California, either. It’s not as if the entire state of California is identical weather-wise to Southern California, because it definitely is not. Obviously Sacramento and Fresno have much different climate and weather patterns compared to San Francisco and Santa Barbara. Bakersfield is much different from San Luis Obispo. And even Southern California has vastly different weather extremes and climates depending on where you happen to be. Compare Santa Monica with Rancho Cucamonga or Anaheim with Hemet. Compare Malibu with Woodland Hills or Whittier with Big Bear City.
Parts of inland So. Cal rival the heat in summer that you’d experience in many Midwestern states. I think the so-called “ideal” or “perfect” So. Cal weather generally gets applied to only that very narrow strip of land along the coastline. But many assume that the coastal So. Cal weather represents the weather for all of So. Cal, which it definitely doesn’t. Living in Seal Beach is vastly different weather and climate-wise to living in Riverside.
The difference between the Inland California heat and the Midwest heat is the humidity, it sucks the life out of you.
The difference between the Inland California heat and the Midwest heat is the humidity, it sucks the life out of you.
And you have 17 degree highs ib january and possiblity of snow from nov to may. Been there, done that. Inland socal may not be santa monica weather but it sure beats the rest of the country.
OC weather is ideal...... This coming from someone who moved from Broward county, FL. It's sooooo much more pleasant and agreeable than most places on the east coast.
I find it funny when people from other states talk about the wonderful weather in Southern CA. I have lived in Orange County for 32 years, and one of the top reasons (besides the traffic congestion) I would like to move out of here is because of the extremely boring weather.
There is no change of season. During the summer the sky is hazy white from the low stratus clouds trapped by the mountains, until July. We call it May Gray / June Gloom. From August through October we are stuck in a bubble of brown smog, which you can see the best when you approach LA/OC from an outlying area. As a private pilot, I can also see this from the air. The mountains trap the clouds and smoke preventing the onshore winds from blowing it out to the desert.
After living here for a while you begin to realize this is the desert. If it were not for the supply of water diverted from the Sierra Nevada mountains through the Owens Valley, we would have parched land with little but cacti to decorate the soil. As the summer moves on with days approaching 100F, you can begin to see the roadside plants dying of thirst as the city landscapers struggle to give them enough water.
The short winter is wet and rainy with accidents on the freeway all over the place, because LA/OC drivers don't know how to drive in the rain (except for this year, when we had record low rainfall).
I can understand why people from cold climates would want to move here to escape from the freeze. But this is not the paradise weather that is so frequently advertised. The Spring and Fall season is nice, although those seasons are nice in a lot of areas of the country.
Whether you will enjoy it here could depend on your personality type. If you like a routine, predictable life, then you may love it. Besides the earthquakes and wildfires, the weather does not offer much surprise. On the other hand if you like adventure and variety, Southern CA weather is like watching the paint dry on a fence, or watching the bagle in the toaster oven.
A little bit of vartiety in nature (forests, cute wild animals, natural meadows) and weather patterns adds a little spice to life. That's mostly missing here.
This is what the smog looks like from an airplane. This layer of smog covers the Southern CA basin every summer and you can feel it in the lungs after a good excercise. How can this be ideal weather?
I dont get your post. California is huge. There are different weather patterns all over the state. Which fit a lot of different wants. Last month it was raining like crazy at my brothers house in Nor Cal. They had a crap load of snow this year too. Where he is at you have seasons.
Seriously? Natural meadow? The reason you don’t have forests, wild animals or natural meadows is because you don’t live in a area that has those things. You’re living in a urban or metropolitan type area. I guess you can move up to Big Bear or Arrowhead and you can have your forest and wild animals and meadows. Although you will need to hike to a meadow it’s not gonna be by your front door.
We have a few months of hot and then it’s pretty mild weather. Go live back east through a few years of big snow storms and floods. Let me know how that’s working out for you.
After living here for a while you begin to realize this is the desert. If it were not for the supply of water diverted from the Sierra Nevada mountains through the Owens Valley, we would have parched land with little but cacti to decorate the soil. As the summer moves on with days approaching 100F, you can begin to see the roadside plants dying of thirst as the city landscapers struggle to give them enough water.
Speaking of boring, I get so bored with people claiming that OC (and the rest of coastal southern California) is desert. Educate yourself a little bit. It's not the desert. Of course landscaping plants struggle in the summer heat...they're non-native! Get out of the built-up areas a little bit and into the native vegetation and you will see all kinds of trees and plants that are not only still alive and green in the summer, they're actually blooming.
To be fair, good weather is not synonymous with California, either. It’s not as if the entire state of California is identical weather-wise to Southern California, because it definitely is not. Obviously Sacramento and Fresno have much different climate and weather patterns compared to San Francisco and Santa Barbara. Bakersfield is much different from San Luis Obispo. And even Southern California has vastly different weather extremes and climates depending on where you happen to be. Compare Santa Monica with Rancho Cucamonga or Anaheim with Hemet. Compare Malibu with Woodland Hills or Whittier with Big Bear City.
Parts of inland So. Cal rival the heat in summer that you’d experience in many Midwestern states. I think the so-called “ideal” or “perfect” So. Cal weather generally gets applied to only that very narrow strip of land along the coastline. But many assume that the coastal So. Cal weather represents the weather for all of So. Cal, which it definitely doesn’t. Living in Seal Beach is vastly different weather and climate-wise to living in Riverside.
I made this mistake when I first moved here. Before, the only parts of CA I have been to was Downtown LA and points west. I never ventured east of the 710, and the one day when we went to Magic Mountain, it was cool and cloudy. When I finally moved here a couple of years later, I was in the San Gabriel Valley area during the summer and was wondering why it was nearly 100 degrees. I thought it didn't get that hot in SoCal and that all of SoCal west of Palm Springs had similar weather to the LA basin. That's when I finally looked up the avg weather and educated myself on how the various hills block the ocean breeze/marine layer/etc.
SoCal doesn't get as humid as the Midwest, which is both good (not as hot, you don't get as sweaty) and bad (humidity helps stop the spread of wildfires).
Speaking of boring, I get so bored with people claiming that OC (and the rest of coastal southern California) is desert. Educate yourself a little bit. It's not the desert. Of course landscaping plants struggle in the summer heat...they're non-native! Get out of the built-up areas a little bit and into the native vegetation and you will see all kinds of trees and plants that are not only still alive and green in the summer, they're actually blooming.
The problem with that is that there is not much native vegetation left anywhere in Southern California (except for on a few of the local hill and mountain tops -- the one's which haven't been built upon, that is). The majority of So. Cal is concrete, asphalt, and tar (along with artificial landscaping and non-native species of trees and shrubs); we are basically living in a "fake" environment here, because very little of what surrounds us is natural. The air is real; the sunlight is real, but everything else? Artificial! LOL.
Obviously, living in a huge metropolitan area has its pluses and benefits, and obviously many people love living in such a huge urban area, so this lack of nature or open space is not necessarily a problem for anyone who doesn't value that sort of thing. But for anyone who does like a bit of nature or a bit of the "outdoorsy" element, then So. Cal (at least the LA Basin/metro areas) leave a lot to be desired.
And we are not very far off from being a true desert. LA averages just under 15" of rain on a normal year; so that amount of yearly rain combined with the evaporation rates for the area basically place LA (or So. Cal) on the cusp of being a desert.
The difference between the Inland California heat and the Midwest heat is the humidity, it sucks the life out of you.
Good point! The lack of humidity here makes the heat much more tolerable.
As a teenager, I used to spend every summer vacation with family out in southeastern Oklahoma (near the border of Arkansas, close to Ft. Smith), and me being used to the So. Cal summers, I was shocked out of my mind how hot and muggy it was back there. It was a very pretty place -- very green and hilly, with a lot of trees and open spaces -- but the heat combined with the humidity was stifling. I sort of got used to it after a while, but it was never comfortable. And I was too afraid to go swimming in any of the local lakes and ponds (they have snakes in there, after all), so I didn't do much swimming. A few times I was brave enough to jump in, but I didn't stay in for long; I saw too many snakes slithering on top of various lakes and ponds during my stays there to warrant my spending too much time in any water.
But in terms of the weather: yes, compared to southeastern Oklahoma, I would say that Southern California weather is much preferred.
But I'll take San Francisco weather over So. Cal all day long.
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