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Yesterday, June 30, 2017 was a very good example of the average Sacramento Summer Day.
55F - The day started very cool, with high humidity- the good kind, COOL and moist (the kind San Francisco gets), some low clouds from the ocean were drifting in. It was 56F, and the "feels like" temp was 55F because of the wind and moisture made it feel even COOLER - 6AM
59F - very cool and refreshing for outdoor exercise and great for working outside, 7AM 67F - still quite cool, 9AM 72F - still very comfortable, 10:30AM 82F - still comfortable with a little warmth, humidity has dropped considerably below 20%, excellent for outdoor dining, no need for a sweater, and you can do shorts, and swim in the pool, unlike SF which was 52F, at 12 Noon
91F - High temp for the Day, low humidity, excellent for pool, shorts and water recreation, bright sun, after all it's Summer the way its supposed to be not winter like SF at 56F, 5:30pm
81F - the evening was perfect for strolls, dining al fresco, dew point vey comfortable, nighttime swimming, awesome sunset without winter type fog and clouds to block your view like SF which was 52F, and Fresno was still 91F, too warm/hot for nighttime, 8:00pm
66F - the rest of the night was very comfortable for any night time activity and for night owls, cooled off dramatically from the late afternoon, guaranteeing a comfortable nights sleep, no A/C needed unlike Vegas which was still 90F at midnight.
55F - The next morning, Sacramento started the day at the same temp as Seattle, and cooler than Portland which was 62F, who would think Sac was cooler than Portland in the Summer. But, thank goodness it wasn't a Cold winter-like day like San Francisco which was 47F covered in a heavy blanket of Clouds and Fog this morning at 6am with no warming in sight like a beautiful Sacramento Summer
I was out at 8pm in Fresno!
Strong winds made it feel okay, actually. Warm, windy, but not hot, I didn't sweat at all outside.
Sure it wasn't as nice as sacramento, but most people would have enjoyed being outside!
Fresno needs to be about 103+ degrees before I decide to stay in. Thankfully there's not many of those days per year.
I was out at 8pm in Fresno!
Strong winds made it feel okay, actually. Warm, windy, but not hot, I didn't sweat at all outside.
Sure it wasn't as nice as sacramento, but most people would have enjoyed being outside!
Fresno needs to be about 103+ degrees before I decide to stay in. Thankfully there's not many of those days per year.
Welcome back, chim
Thanks, Flo, Fresno beats Vegas and Phoenix in the Summer, and you have the Sierras which are more beautiful with trees than the mountains around Vegas and Phoenix. Sacramento weather was excellent last night as we played the Grizzlies. :-)
I would agree with this. A further extension of your assessment would be why LA is more often considered Mediterranean and why Portland is more often considered Oceanic(Maritime).
LA gets just enough more consistent rain than San Diego hence being Mediterranean, and not Semi-arid.
Portland gets just enough more fluctuations in temps and diurnal range than Seattle hence being Oceanic and not Mediterranean.
Sacramento and San Francisco get even more rain than LA consistently hence being more Mediterranean.
Another reason why San Deigo is NOT classically Mediterranean is that it actually does get rain and monsoonal moisture from the south and southwest during the non-rainy season, something NorCal (Sac and SF) almost never get. Our last heat wave was sort of close to getting the kind of monsoonal moisture that San Deigo and the Desert Southwest get, but it was not enough moisture, (nor any warm rain) and it didn't come from the south of Baja as is the case for the Desert Southwest.
The interesting thing is that in the actual Mediterranean, summer thunderstorms are much more common than they are in California in general, although they are not monsoonal in nature. But much of the Mediterranean Basin does get a bit more rain and more rainy days in the summer than most of California. In a way, that makes the actual Mediterranean more like San Diego, but at the same time very different because it's not monsoonal. The other thing I noticed about the Mediterranean Basin is that rainfall totals tend to be higher than not only LA and San Diego but also the Bay Area and Sacramento. They seem to be closer to what you would expect in Santa Rosa or Redding. And Sacramento happens to be much sunnier than most of the Mediterranean, and far sunnier than most of San Diego because of the lack of marine layer. So there are so many interesting little twists, turns, and variables from City to City, even within one climate zone known as Mediterranean.
As someone who now lives in San Diego full time and lived here part-time for the past 20 years, I would say that the monsoon is really an extremely minor part of the overall climate, although I found it much more pronounced during the recent drought years than during a normal year like this one. 2 years ago was just crazy, with rainfall every two weeks . Of course, we only just finished June, so it's a bit early for Monsoon, and I hope we do get some this year. We only average one thunderstorm every 10 years here in June, but hopefully July and August will have at least one or two.
Still, even San Diego gets more than 80% of its annual rainfall within a five-month period, and it gets too much precipitation and not enough soil evaporation to qualify as desert just yet, so it's technically Mediterranean on paper even though it definitely has that hint of coastal desert.
Another interesting statistic is that La only gets 25 days of rain per year, while San Diego gets 42 days a year, so you might think San Diego would be rainier. But as you already know, La gets 50% more rain than San Diego. And Sacramento gets between 80 and 100% more rain than San Diego but has more sunny days and higher annual Sunshine probability than either LA or San Diego (though seasonally higher or lower). And of course, all three cities are not very cloudy or rainy by comparison to much of the world.
Another interesting climate is Jerusalem. In photographs, it appears almost like desert, but if you look at average temperatures from month to month and average rainfall from month to month, it's almost identical to my hometown of Walnut Creek, which was something that some Israeli friends of ours would always tell us when they lived in Walnut Creek. I suppose the difference in landscape has more to do with the type of soil than the climate.
All the similarities, differences, and overlap between different Mediterranean climates is what I find so fascinating about our state and other places like it. We all have our unique regional identities yet share something in common. I will say that one of my favorite things about walking through Midtown Sacramento is seeing huge orange trees along the sidewalks, with oranges falling to the ground. That's something you might expect in Southern California, yet I've never seen it there. It actually seems like a scene out of the south of Spain, very European, and I love that!
Chimerique,
As a Sacramento native having lived here for almost 30 years, I am still pleasantly surprised when I step out on my patio at 11pm on a summer night to a brisk 70 degrees when it was mid 90s earlier in the day. I love the delta breeze, it is a special gift.
The interesting thing is that in the actual Mediterranean, summer thunderstorms are much more common than they are in California in general, although they are not monsoonal in nature. But much of the Mediterranean Basin does get a bit more rain and more rainy days in the summer than most of California. In a way, that makes the actual Mediterranean more like San Diego, but at the same time very different because it's not monsoonal. The other thing I noticed about the Mediterranean Basin is that rainfall totals tend to be higher than not only LA and San Diego but also the Bay Area and Sacramento. They seem to be closer to what you would expect in Santa Rosa or Redding. And Sacramento happens to be much sunnier than most of the Mediterranean, and far sunnier than most of San Diego because of the lack of marine layer. So there are so many interesting little twists, turns, and variables from City to City, even within one climate zone known as Mediterranean.
I've spend many summers in the South of France (Mediterranean) and they certainly did have more thunderstorms, usually at night, and it was more humid both night and day. However, the Mediterranean is a very large area, and the Mediterranean Sea is warmer than the California Current. Also, the latitudes of the Mediterranean(Southern France, Spain, Italy) are further north. Perhaps, there are several areas of the Mediterranean that are more similar to Sacramento, Bay Area, and LA.
Koppen Climate Classification system uses formulas and San Diego is NOT classed as a Mediterranean Climate, and Sacramento is rated as a Mediterranean Climate.
I've spend many summers in the South of France (Mediterranean) and they certainly did have more thunderstorms, usually at night, and it was more humid both night and day. However, the Mediterranean is a very large area, and the Mediterranean Sea is warmer than the California Current. Also, the latitudes of the Mediterranean(Southern France, Spain, Italy) are further north. Perhaps, there are several areas of the Mediterranean that are more similar to Sacramento, Bay Area, and LA.
Koppen Climate Classification system uses formulas and San Diego is NOT classed as a Mediterranean Climate, and Sacramento is rated as a Mediterranean Climate.
San Diego is a BSh - Semi-Arid hot climate.
Interesting, although Wikipedia describes San Diego's climate as again a bit undefineable:
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Under the Köppen–Geiger climate classification system, the San Diego area has been variously categorized as having either a semi-arid climate (BSh in the original classification[65] and BSkn in modified Köppen classification)[66] or a Mediterranean climate[67] (Csa and Csb).[68] San Diego's climate is characterized by warm, dry summers and mild winters with most of the annual precipitation falling between December and March.
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And looking at features of both, neither fits that well. The Koppen maps don't actually show SD in its semi-arid coloring, although the native landscape would be in line with it; however, it's not as hot as many of the other parts of tbe world. As you mentioned, it's got a unique combination of quite southerly latitude (northern Africa) but with colder ocean currents. That's tbe challenge of defining a borderline climate, bc it's enigmatic and varies from year to year.
What is true though is that it's not truly or purely one thing. Still, every single gardening article falsely claims it's Mediterranean. Very hard to define by existing definitions!
108/73 Fresno
108/87 Phoenix
99/60 Sacramento
100/73 salt lake city!
Shakes fist! sac isnt supposed to be escaping the heatwave so soon. Its usually in august or September when that first happens. Enjoy the "cool" weather, chim.
Only saving grace for fresno is that the winds have been epic lately and are expected to continue during this new wave.
108/73 Fresno
108/87 Phoenix
99/60 Sacramento
100/73 salt lake city!
Shakes fist! sac isnt supposed to be escaping the heatwave so soon. Its usually in august or September when that first happens. Enjoy the "cool" weather, chim.
Only saving grace for fresno is that the winds have been epic lately and are expected to continue during this new wave.
Edit: phx hit 118 today!!l
Looks like 106 in Sac today though! SLC has been hot lately, but I know they had a crappy, cold spring and deserve some summer Esther. Interestingly, I just learned that SLC only averages four triple digit days per year. I always thought it was hotter.
Also interesting is that the heat advisory for the East Bay predicts lows in the farthest inland communities to be in the 70s to low 80s, much warmer than Sac. I wonder what causes that.
Looks like 106 in Sac today though! SLC has been hot lately, but I know they had a crappy, cold spring and deserve some summer Esther. Interestingly, I just learned that SLC only averages four triple digit days per year. I always thought it was hotter.
Also interesting is that the heat advisory for the East Bay predicts lows in the farthest inland communities to be in the 70s to low 80s, much warmer than Sac. I wonder what causes that.
I stayed in SLC for a couple of cooler summers. We rarely turned on the AC, it was awesome. Only nature complaint was all the sun damage from being so high up. You tan/wrinkle so fast up there.
If it wasn't so isolated, I would have kept living there.
Edit: 4,200 elevation for SLC.
SLC might end up with 15-20 100 degree days. wow.
Last edited by Flovis; 07-08-2017 at 09:19 PM..
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