Do we underestimate and downplay how Great Sacramento weather really is? (Los Angeles: ski resorts, camp)

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by Blimp

I didn't read all 84 pages, but I'm glad that a good majority of posters in this thread do realize that the Sacramento Valley has some of the best weather in the world. With the dew point hardly ever rising above 60°, it's hard to say that summers in Sacramento are uncomfortable for the average person. Even in Toronto, Canada, it gets a lot more humid and ergo uncomfortable than that in July and August. Maybe some people are truly affected by just heat alone, but for the average person around the U.S., "it's not the heat, it's the humidity." To me, it's not even the heat index that matters. It's the dew point.

The Sacramento Valley also gets more sun in June, July, and August than any spot on Earth. I think that's amazing. Does anyone know if California has one of those solar energy programs like some other states where you can sell your power back to the grid at competitive rates? If so, the area is better than any on the planet for solar power in the summer. If not, it still could be with those Tesla home batteries. I guess the tule fog makes it not quite as great in the winter though.

At any rate, I may move back to California one day based on warmth and sun alone. It's the only Mediterranean climate outside of Cape Town, South Africa; Perth, Australia; and, well, the Mediterranean itself.

And when I do, I think I actually prefer the weather of Sacramento to that of the other 3 major metros of California. It gets the most rain of the four, which is obviously important moving forward (although hopefully there won't be many droughts as bad as the one now). It also has the closest thing to all four seasons. Summers are obviously warmer than in SF, LA, or SD, and winters are slightly cooler. Obviously Sacramento has the worst surfing of the four, but being raised in Virginia, I wasn't the biggest fan of San Fran at the time because there were no seasons at all other than the Mediterranean standards of "green" and "brown". That's a bit boring to have such little variation in temperature.

But while I'd still rather to have seasons and some nice variation (Sacramento is 40° warmer in midsummer than the dead of winter) I also love the Mediterranean climate in that there is almost never any ice or snow, and when there is it usually melts within 24 hours. That's wonderful.

Add to that the fact that you can always drive to Tahoe and Heavenly whenever you really WANT the snow, and you have pretty much the best climate on Earth. It's hard to find that even in the actual Mediterranean.

You have it made!

Blimp, I never commented on your thoughtful response, much appreciated, I gave you reputation points several days back.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by JohnS_15

Your first post... 86 pages ago... is a pretty accurate depiction of the weather here. The fact that it has gone on for 86 pages is what makes it ridiculous. I was just pointing that out. You are trying to be rational about something that people are totally irrational about.

Personally I have no arguments with your weather facts and have no beef with the weather here.

I do wonder your motivation for so staunchly defending Sacramento at every turn. Are you on the tourism board or something??

Hey I gave you rep points on your first post after re-reading from a different point of view.

After 86+ pages, 59,260+ Views,........your words, not mine, "YOU ARE TRYING TO BE RATIONAL ABOUT SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE ARE TOTALLY IRRATIONAL ABOUT", .....PERFECTLY ARTICULATES my thought process when I first started this thread.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Perhaps, "I'm not at liberty to tell you" meant that he didn't really know why it was "so comfortable" under the shade........now we know, lol

I'm sure that's exactly why he said it

[JohnS_15]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Hey I gave you rep points on your first post after re-reading from a different point of view.

After 86+ pages, 59,260+ Views,........your words, not mine, "YOU ARE TRYING TO BE RATIONAL ABOUT SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE ARE TOTALLY IRRATIONAL ABOUT", .....PERFECTLY ARTICULATES my thought process when I first started this thread.

Yeah thanks I wasn't trying to discount the facts or your points of view on the subject. I was merely just making an observation that I find it comical that after summarizing the weather quite nicely in your original post that you now have 87 pages of back and forth on the subject.

Not sure if my comments read more negatively than I meant them...I certainly don't need to start my own thread bashing Sacramento as 2sleepy suggests. I'm quite content living here and I don't think I've ever posted anything too negative in the past.

[suebee123]

Sacramento weather is perfect.

[Chimérique]

Sacramento weather has become very much like typical Southern California fall and winter weather in the last 2-3 years.

Here's how:

Fall - Warmer overall to date, this October has been unlike our normal October weather. Both high's and low's temps have been around 10 degrees warmer. We have not had one crisp very cool morning yet. In fact, right now its 67F with a drying warmish strong breeze....sort of like the off-shore Santa Ana conditions that affect SoCal in the fall and winter. I am running the whole house fan as I type. It's actually a beautiful perfect night. But it's just not right because it's late October. We should have a consistent pattern of moisture on the ground with more leaves on the ground by now.

On paper, the weather is fantastic, clear, fair, highs in the high 70's to mid 80's, low's in the mid 50's to low 60's. But, it should be consistently in the mid 60's to low 70's for high temps, and low 50's to high 40's for low temps. I don't like it because it's not normal Sacramento weather. We had a week of low 90's in October - this is not normal! Good news is that in September we had week of mid 70's for high temps.

Winter - Tule fog seems to be a thing of the past. It was practically none existent last winter, maybe one or two actual days where the city was socked in and lasted only half a day. I never thought I would miss the fog.

Summer - Ironically, our summers have not changed much, so far they have remained typical despite the drought.

If you like warmer autumns and winters with less cloud cover with sparse rain then this is perfect "SoCal" weather. I hate it. I want our cool crisp, occasionally foggy autumn and winters back. I want to see cold winter storms that deliver hardy snow packs. El Nino promises only warm wet winters, but not a deep snow pack.

Trees are dying in Sacramento, especially the redwoods and other pines. I hate these drought-resitent yards. Remember when everyone had green lawns. I hate that we are looking like the Southland - LA, SD, Phoenix, and Vegas. People are actually cutting down healthy old growth trees - why? Don't they know it's the trees that make Sacramento special. We lost a beautifull 30 year old, 50 foot tall large Chinese Elm, somehow it got diseased, then dropped it's largest limbs; I suspect the drought had something to do with it. The tree shaded 75% of the house. Good news, no leaves to pick-up this fall.

You don't really appreciate what you have until you lose it.

[caligirlz]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Winter - Tule fog seems to be a thing of the past. It was practically none existent last winter, maybe one or two actual days where the city was socked in and lasted only half a day. I never thought I would miss the fog.

The real tule fog is still present in the low-lying country areas surrounding the Sacto metro, like Plumas Lake/Marysville...out that way, and of course, in the central san joaquin valley south of Sacramento. It may have been present back in the day before Sacramento expanded (10-20 years ago), but in all my time in this area, it in no way has ever compared with the central san joaquin valley. IMO, as a CSJV girl, Sacramento had tule fog light.

[2sleepy]

It's raining!
Sacramento, CA Interactive Weather Radar Map - AccuWeather.com

[DougStark]

Losing old, mature trees in Sacramento due to the drought and watering restrictions would be a major bummer! I can't think of a town with more diverse and beautiful trees than Sac.- sub-tropicals to temperate climate trees.

I have education in agriculture, so I'd like to state that it doesn't take frequent sprinkling to maintain shade trees. It takes at least infrequent (monthly), deep summer sprinkling to maintain them. The grass may die, but the trees will be fine.

[DougStark]

Originally Posted by gsdogmom

First of all, just for accuracy sake, I'm not a "he." Interesting that you would automatically call me "he" without knowing for sure (although the "gsdogmom" should have given it away -- German Shepherd Dog Mom. Maybe I'm in the minority being able to figure out people's User IDs).

Second, I'm well aware of why you started a thread about Sacramento weather and that was so you could defend it. But saying, "Other places are a whole lot worse" doesn't make living in Sacramento any better! That's like if someone said, "Don't move to Oakland, California or you'll be dodging bullets everywhere you go" and someone else says, "Well Detroit is worse!" That does NOT make Oakland a great, or even fair place to live just because other places are worse! By the way, I've been to other cities, so just because I've only lived in two major metropolitan areas in my life (so far) doesn't mean I'm oblivious to the weather in other parts of the country. I have family in New Mexico, an ex-husband in Texas, and friends all over the country. I have been in all of the 48 connecting states, plus Maui, Hawaii (and Canada and Mexico, but let's stick to one country at a time).

Third, people need to stop talking about air conditioning. Do all you people sit at your computer all... day... long? I go outside. I go outside a LOT. I have four big dogs, we have a giant parklike backyard where I love to garden and throw toys that the dogs love to fetch, and I don't have air conditioning in my backyard. Shoot, I don't even have shade trees. Some imbecile cut them all down before I bought the property so I've planted 12 new trees. Won't be here to watch them mature but I've gotten them off to a great start so the next owners will benefit. When we go to parks for picnics, no AC there either. Parades, same problem. Even just walking from the car into a shopping center, restaurant, or a movie theater mid summer will make my hair stick to the back of my neck. Yuk.

Anyway, as many others have mentioned here, your numbers and especially your outlook are skewed so they don't mean much. It's created a lot of conversation though if that was really your goal, and it's great that you love it in Sacramento, just stop trying to convince people that it isn't hotter than hades here in the summer (and part of the spring and part of the autumn), because it is. Every place I've gone in the past few days someone there has said, "I'm SOOO glad it's finally October!!!" That's no way to live where half of the year people are belly-aching about the heat, walking and driving around in bad moods, and waiting for time to pass so it's bearable again. And it's only getting worse, not just with global warming, but with no water to speak of.

Bye, bye Sacramento. You USED to be a great place to live but not any more.

Your description of Sacramento as "hotter than hades" makes me wonder what my current town (Phoenix) is? What's MUCH hotter than Hades? haha.

I think as long as people have at least a few comfortable seasons, they're likely to put up with several very uncomfortable seasons (examples: Phoenix, Chicago, Houston, Minneapolis, etc.)

I think Sac's uncomfortable seasons are relatively mild compared to the above cities' uncomfortable seasons. I mean, your summer nights are actually COOL! How great is that?