Do we underestimate and downplay how Great Sacramento weather really is? (San Diego: golf, buildings)

[Chimérique]

July 21, 2017, A.M. temps: *heat index
People are going to work, working outside and exercising outside; its much more comfortable in Sactown than:

Miami *97F - the Southeast

Washington DC *96F - the Northeast

Durham, NC *93F - the East

Phoenix - *90F - the South West

Austin *87F - the South

Salt Lake City *75F - the intermountain West

Tucson *74F - the South West

Fresno *65F - going on 6 days of high smog alert - the West

Sactown *61F - the WEST

[Chimérique]

No cherry picking going on here. As in the post above, I chose cities in the north, south, east, and west. I almost never use forecasts either, because they are not fact until the day and night has ended. Use the data that actually occurred.

Again, the reason for this thread is to show that there are several factors when assessing Sacramento's summer weather which are not readily apparent unless you live here and compare it with the rest of the nation.

1. the Heat Index high temp in Sacramento is usually 3-5 degrees LOWER than actual temp in the summer.

2. the opposite is true in much of the nation, where the Heat Index high temp, on average, is usually 3-13 degrees HIGHER than the actual temp in the summer because of uncomfortable dew points and much higher humidity than Sac.

3. Sacramento's summer diurnal range is very wide, on average, some 30 degrees on a daily basis which means Sacramento has a significant portion of it's daylight hours and nighttime hours under very comfortable temps despite a high in the 90's or above.

4. Sacramento is quite different than the rest of the Sacramento Valley and San Joaquin Valley as it sits in one of the coolest "pockets" in the Great Central Valley, an area with a microclimate thanks to the Sacramento Delta Wind/Breeze. Many Coastal Californians don't know this.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

No cherry picking going on here. As in the post above, I chose cities in the north, south, east, and west. I almost never use forecasts either, because they are not fact until the day and night has ended. Use the data that actually occurred.

Again, the reason for this thread is to show that there are several factors when assessing Sacramento's summer weather which are not readily apparent unless you live here and compare it with the rest of the nation.

1. the Heat Index high temp in Sacramento is usually 3-5 degrees LOWER than actual temp in the summer.

2. the opposite is true in much of the nation, where the Heat Index high temp, on average, is usually 3-13 degrees HIGHER than the actual temp in the summer because of uncomfortable dew points and much higher humidity than Sac.

3. Sacramento's summer diurnal range is very wide, on average, some 30 degrees on a daily basis which means Sacramento has a significant portion of it's daylight hours and nighttime hours under very comfortable temps despite a high in the 90's or above.

4. Sacramento is quite different than the rest of the Sacramento Valley and San Joaquin Valley as it sits in one of the coolest "pockets" in the Great Central Valley, an area with a microclimate thanks to the Sacramento Delta Wind/Breeze. Many Coastal Californians don't know this.

Yes completely cherry picked data like usual. Of course you don't use forecasts, you only post temps at times when it shows Sacramento is cooler! Nearly all of your posts are early in the morning or really late at night. And the times you do compare temps during the day you only compare it to cities in the southwest DESERT or Austin.

And no you didn't show a single city in the northeast or Midwest. Washington DC is the Mid-Atlantic and borders the south.

Sacramento's temps are NOT anymore pleasant than at least 1/2 to 2/3 of the nation:

kelly norton: The Pleasant Places to Live

Yeah we get it, Sacramento is cool at 3am.....wonderful....

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by sav858

That's the case anywhere in CA. No you don't get 75-80 most of the year either, look at the averages. You actually get upper 60's/low 70's a good portion of the year. Having never lived in SD I'm not sure how you would even know that. I never claimed it was ideal to "all", no climate is, but ideal to more people than any other single climate including SF. SF actually has a pretty bad reputation for climate among a lot of people.

Weatherwise Magazine -- March-April 2014

Interestingly, several of the places on that list have a climate more similar to the Bay Area than San Diego, even though SD proper is listed in its own right. I think he in CA,most of our climates are among the very best so we're all splitting hairs.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by sav858

HAHAHA NO, Sac is more comfortable than maybe a 1/3 of the nation at best. CHERRY PICKING the hottest parts of nation doesn't prove anything. "SMALL SAMPLE" indeed!

Minneapolis has a forecast high of 83 vs 95 for Sac!!! HAHA Get real! I know you think Sac being "cool" when everyone is asleep makes Sac "comfortable" but much of the nation experiences cooler, less brutal temps when people are actually awake and active than miserably hot Sacramento. Stop CHERRY PICKING data!

"Hey Sac is so comfortable when 99% of people are asleep!" HAHAHA.

Forecast High for Fri/Sat/Sun:
Sac: 95/101/100
Minneapolis: 83/87/89 (Looks like wonderful summer weather compared to Sac)
NYC: 96/91/78 (And another city with better temps than Sac)
San Diego: 77/76/76 (aka PERFECT! lol)
SLC: 95/98/99 (hot but still cooler than Sac! Can't use the humidity argument here either!)
Chicago: 85/86/87 (BEAUTIFUL summer temps)
Boston: 90/85/71 (Sac only wished it could be this nice in mid/late July)
Denver: 92/84/84 (dry warmth and much more comfortable than Sac)
Atlanta: 95/92/89 (not any worse than Sac even with the heat index!)
Cleveland: 82/85/81 (sorry no humidity can make it at as hot as Sac! LOLOL)

oh but wait Phoenix....one of the hottest cities on earth (maybe we should start listing temps for Baghdad and Abu Dahbi!....LOLOL)...guess SAC finally has a city beat there! LOLOLOL. FYI 2/3 of the nation does NOT live in the southwest! Sac is a miserably hot summer city with the rest of them!

This is perfectly stated. My only gripe would be that the heat isn't miserable to me personally. I find it nice.

The three day forecast is way better than a 3am snapshot bc at least you are comparing everyone's maximum and also looking at a trend. If Boston is projected to be in the low 70s then it's not likely going to end up in the 90s. The forecast will be close enough.

I don't even so much disagree with Chimerique about Sac summers being nice. I just disagree with his methodology to make his point, which is a statistically meaningless methodology. The only thing that matters is aggregated long term data. Snapshots are cute but ultimately random.

I want to add that I disagree with Chim that the Bay Area is the coldest metro area in the country in summer. SF may be the coldest major city, but most of the Bay Area is is as warm as, or warmer than, many cities, at least in terms of daytime highs, and certainly sunnier than almost the entire country. Nights are generally cooler and nicer though. SF is but one microclimate that is not representative of the region as a whole. But if one wants to make the argument that Sacramento's 94f summer average is only hot to people from cold climates, that's fine.

I'm actually having a hard time finding American cities outside of the desert SW, which are among the hottest in the world, with daytime highs as hot as Sacramento. Low temps, yes, but not high temps.

The only honest way to characterize Sac summers is that the days are most often hot, dry, and sunny, the evenings are most often mild and pleasant, and the early mornings are most often cool. Picking individual points of random data to pretend the historical statistics aren't real is just a bit strange.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by sav858

Yeah we get it, Sacramento is cool at 3am.....wonderful....

YES, SACRAMENTO is wonderful, as its very comfortable all morning long, early afternoon, evening, and ALL night, absolutely WONDERFUL, most of the time.

[rvp88]

Being objective here as I've lived a lot of different places:

Sacramento has great weather so long as you can stand the heat waves we get in the summer. Weather in the Fall, Winter, and Spring is great and I like how we get more rain than SoCal.

We rarely (if ever) get a real thunderstorm here so we don't have to worry as much about weather related damage that is a very regular occurrence in the midwest and on the east coast. Also it rarely (if ever) gets cold here while still having proximity to cold if you want it.

[rvp88]

Originally Posted by sav858

HAHAHA NO, Sac is more comfortable than maybe a 1/3 of the nation at best. CHERRY PICKING the hottest parts of nation doesn't prove anything. "SMALL SAMPLE" indeed!

Minneapolis has a forecast high of 83 vs 95 for Sac!!! HAHA Get real! I know you think Sac being "cool" when everyone is asleep makes Sac "comfortable" but much of the nation experiences cooler, less brutal temps when people are actually awake and active than miserably hot Sacramento. Stop CHERRY PICKING data!

"Hey Sac is so comfortable when 99% of people are asleep!" HAHAHA.

Forecast High for Fri/Sat/Sun:
Sac: 95/101/100
Minneapolis: 83/87/89 (Looks like wonderful summer weather compared to Sac)
NYC: 96/91/78 (And another city with better temps than Sac)
San Diego: 77/76/76 (aka PERFECT! lol)
SLC: 95/98/99 (hot but still cooler than Sac! Can't use the humidity argument here either!)
Chicago: 85/86/87 (BEAUTIFUL summer temps)
Boston: 90/85/71 (Sac only wished it could be this nice in mid/late July)
Denver: 92/84/84 (dry warmth and much more comfortable than Sac)
Atlanta: 95/92/89 (not any worse than Sac even with the heat index!)
Cleveland: 82/85/81 (sorry no humidity can make it at as hot as Sac! LOLOL)

oh but wait Phoenix....one of the hottest cities on earth (maybe we should start listing temps for Baghdad and Abu Dahbi!....LOLOL)...guess SAC finally has a city beat there! LOLOLOL. FYI 2/3 of the nation does NOT live in the southwest! Sac is a miserably hot summer city with the rest of them!

Most of the cities on this list are really only pleasant in the summer, so naturally they should be better than Sac right now. Minneapolis, Chicago, NYC, Cleveland, and Boston have terrible weather almost year round save 2-3 months in the summer. SLC and Denver are freezing in the winter with probably the most extreme and unpredictable temperature swings in the US. Coming from someone who has lived in Atlanta - you begin sweating the minute you walk outside in the summer, and they get thunderstorms there that make you want to hide under the bed. Only city here that has better year round weather than Sac is San Diego which is not affordable.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

YES, SACRAMENTO is wonderful, as its very comfortable all morning long, early afternoon, evening, and ALL night, absolutely WONDERFUL, most of the time.

It's early afternoon and 89 degrees in Sac and heading towards 97, I'm sure all the people working outside or walking around in a suit find that "wonderful"....

[sav858]

Originally Posted by rvp88

Most of the cities on this list are really only pleasant in the summer, so naturally they should be better than Sac right now. Minneapolis, Chicago, NYC, Cleveland, and Boston have terrible weather almost year round save 2-3 months in the summer. SLC and Denver are freezing in the winter with probably the most extreme and unpredictable temperature swings in the US. Coming from someone who has lived in Atlanta - you begin sweating the minute you walk outside in the summer, and they get thunderstorms there that make you want to hide under the bed. Only city here that has better year round weather than Sac is San Diego which is not affordable.

Yes I think we are all are very aware of this, it's no secret. But the OP is claiming Sac has more comfortable SUMMER WEATHER than 2/3's of the nation. That is complete nonsense! You want to brag about Sac's weather compared to the rest of the country the summer is the worst time to do it.