Sacramento's Winter or "Rainy Season" (Winters: live, move to)

[ccn1217]

I've lived in Seattle for 25 years now, but I'm planning a move to the Sacramento Area. Can someone give me some insight on the "rainy season" in Sacramento? In Seattle, during the winter, it is cloudy most days and when it rains, it basically drizzles ALL day.

During the rainy season in Sacramento, does it rain all day the days it rains? Or does it rain for a few hours and then the sun comes out? Does the sun still come out a lot during the winter months?

I'd appreciate any insight!

[PinkElephant]

Imho

[KC6ZLV]

It varies from year to year, but December and January can be very grey. If it isn't raining it is likely to be foggy or overcast most of the day. Clear nights often lead to frosty mornings. Generally, lows are in the low-30s when it is clear, slightly warmer when it is foggy, but the afternoons can be chilly if the fog and overcast doesn't clear. That pattern usually changes in February.

The season usually begins with rain in late October or November with a few foggy mornings. We really start getting the rain in December. Usually there is break in the rain when high-pressure settles in. This is when we get the persistent fog. This can occur sometime from late December through February. Usually it occurs in January and ends with the fog clearing, about a week of mild days in the low 60s, then we go into a rainy pattern again. The spring varies from year to year in that one year we will get a flow coming up from the subtropics and receive a lot of 50-something rainy days that aren't so cold. This year it has come from the north and been quite chilly. Rain usually starts to decrease in March, but can hang on into May in some years.

Overall, there are only a few weeks out of the year when the temperatures fall down into the mid-20s. Typical frosty mornings here range from 28 to 34 or so. Just cold enough to kill everything in the garden.

[NewToCA]

We had four or five straight weeks in January where no rain fell at all, and it was mostly sunny every day. I'd say that it rains perhaps 30% of the days between late October and mid April. The remaineder of the days are generally sunny.

High temps in the dead of winter tend to be between the upper 40's and low 60's. Nights tend to bottom out around the mid 30's to low 40's.

[Curmudgeon]

One "memory" is wind in combination with the rain. It can chill your bones, swamp the streets and fill your shoes when the rain is blown horizontally. Thankfully, wind doesn't always accompany the rain and for the most part, winter weather in Sacramento was actually quite refreshing.

[KC6ZLV]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

We had four or five straight weeks in January where no rain fell at all, and it was mostly sunny every day. I'd say that it rains perhaps 30% of the days between late October and mid April. The remaineder of the days are generally sunny.

High temps in the dead of winter tend to be between the upper 40's and low 60's. Nights tend to bottom out around the mid 30's to low 40's.

No rain and sunny in January? Where were you? Most of January was overcast this year.

I looked up the records at Sacramento Executive. It rained on Jan 1, 2, 6, 12, 13, 29, and 30. Additionally, on Jan 5, 27, 28, and 31 precipitation was recorded from the drizzle falling out of the fog. The coldest high was 39. The warmest was 70 after a little disturbance mixed out the inversion and allowed the sun to break through. The weather went back down into the 50s after that. We had a change in the weather pattern on the 21st which pattern which prevented an inversion from forming and gave us about three weeks of mild weather into the first half of February.

[NewToCA]

Originally Posted by KC6ZLV

No rain and sunny in January? Where were you? Most of January was overcast this year.

We had 1.36 inches of rain the past January, about 1/4 of our normal total for the month.

Weather History for Sacramento, CA [California] for January


Sheesh...

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by ccn1217

I've lived in Seattle for 25 years now, but I'm planning a move to the Sacramento Area. Can someone give me some insight on the "rainy season" in Sacramento? In Seattle, during the winter, it is cloudy most days and when it rains, it basically drizzles ALL day.

During the rainy season in Sacramento, does it rain all day the days it rains? Or does it rain for a few hours and then the sun comes out? Does the sun still come out a lot during the winter months?

I'd appreciate any insight!

Here are the temperature:

SACRAMENTO FAA ARPT, CALIFORNIA - Climate Summary


And precipitation

SACRAMENTO FAA ARPT, CALIFORNIA - Climate Summary

averages for Sacremanto.

The month with the most days of rain is January, with an average of 10. Compared to Seattle, that's not bad.

Average highs in Dec & Jan are in the low 50s and lows in the upper 30s, with February noticeably warmer at about 60/41

[wburg]

Winters are sometimes punctuated by stretches of clear, sunny weather--but because it's still winter, and there is no cloud layer to hold in heat, the low temperatures are even colder than during winter storms! Those can be really nice days, if you remember that it's still winter and dress accordingly.

[KC6ZLV]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

We had 1.36 inches of rain the past January, about 1/4 of our normal total for the month.

Weather History for Sacramento, CA [California] for January


Sheesh...

You stated we had four or five weeks of dry sunny weather in January. We didn't. We had about three weeks of dry weather starting the last week of January and the first two of February.