how cold does sacramento get in the winter? (San Jose, Redding: bike, complaints)

[KC6ZLV]

Fog/stratus in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys today. You can see the fog air moving west through the Delta (land breeze). You can also see a "wave" from weak disturbance mix out the inversion layer over the Sacramento Valley north of the Sutter Buttes. You can also see this wave enhance some stratus development over the southern Sierra Nevada.



RAMMB/CIRA SLIDER: Satellite Loop Interactive Data Explorer in Real-time with GOES-16 and Himawari-8 Satellite Imagery

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by KC6ZLV

The ones I've seen in Sacramento have been stressed from the dry air, and this is a problem for them in most of California. They aren't the best fit for locations in steppe and Mediterranean climates that don't have a coastal moderating influence. In regards to qeen palms on the Oregon coast, climate isn't strictly about latitude. Again, the climate in the British Isles is heavily moderated by weather that moves over the the warm Gulf Stream. Furthermore, there is much more humidity in the air there. Oregon is only humid over the cooler months.

This is why horticulture is so popular in England. Think English gardens. There is very little environmental stress on the plants there. The only real limiting factor is some plants need much sunlight (such as plumeria) and some don't do very well with dampness, and some require a lot of heat.

I agree queen palms prefer some humidity, which is why we don't see them much in the deserts. When we planted my parents' specimens, we planted them *in* the lawn to ensure adequate water to the roots, which helps a lot, plus we bought them from Central Valley growing fields, which presumably means (as you had previously mentioned) they would be more adapted to the local climate already. Home Depot and Lowe's very likely gets them shipped en masse for cheap from places like Florida or South Texas rather than from California.

England's gardens are truly magnificent, although as you also mentioned, growth of certain exotics can be very slow due to lack of light and heat. I found a very interesting article at Parajubaea torallyi var. torallyiTrebrown Nurseries Blog | Trebrown Nurseries Blog that compares Cornwall to Madrid, Spain, and shows that although Cornwall has a milder Zone 9b climate than Madrid, palms generally grow better in Madrid because of the longer and hotter season. Cornwall's average winter low is around 40f, but it summer high is only 65-66f, and it receives 187 days of rain per year. So species selection is very important to ensure they thrive instead of survive. And even in winter, there is still a big difference in overall conditions between the UK and Sacramento; for example, I see in my Thursday paper that on Wednesday, Sacramento was 63/53 and London 43/40 for the highs and lows. Makes a big difference to subtropicals. Now I don't know that queen palms prefer so little heat as the UK provides, though, as there are other species from higher altitudes that should do even better.

I had always assumed only the Isle of Scilly and its Tresco Abbey Gardens were actually in a Zone 9 climate and that the rest of the UK coast were in a Zone 8 (like Seattle or Vancouver, which have an extremely similar climate except for the occasional snow or freeze event), so I'm actually quite impressed by this.

Of course, consider that more than 90 percent of the United States does not even enjoy California's (including Sacramento's) mild Zone 9b climate, and I suppose the question becomes if Sacramento's winters are mild or if most of our country is simply cold. Even into the deep South, snowfall and freeze events are common at some every winter, even in places like Dallas and Atlanta.

[mixxalot]

Well to me Sacramento gets FREEZING in winter compared to San Diego and other parts of so cal.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by mixxalot

Well to me Sacramento gets FREEZING in winter compared to San Diego and other parts of so cal.

Well, SD is *finally* going to see a warm spell again this week; we'll be in the 70s while Sac will be in the 60s. But I think calling Sac "freezing" is what I call a high class problem. Most of the country would kill for Sacramento winters. It's our California myopia. I presume people in Morocco think Barcelona is freezing too, but tell that to folks in Central Europe. :-)

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by mixxalot

Well to me Sacramento gets FREEZING in winter compared to San Diego and other parts of so cal.

and my relatives in Hawaii and friends in Florida think Southern Cal/SAN DIEGO IS FREEZING.

Jan 22, 2019 7:30pm

Honolulu 78F
Miami 71F
Tampa 67F
Orlando 65F
Santa Monica 61F

San Diego 57F - Burr

Like SD, Sacramento is a piece of cake in the winter

Sacramento 51F
Austin 49F
Portland 47F
Tucson 47F
Las Vegas 46F
Seattle 46F
Cincinnati 43F
Columbus 37F
Baltimore 30F
Reno 30F
Philadelphia 30F
Kansas City 26F
Salt Lake City 23F
Denver 21F

[mxcolin]

10 days of uninterrupted sunshine and 60+ temps ahead for cold rainy Sacramento “winter”.

[mixxalot]

Not in the mornings been 30-35 degrees FREEZING!

[QRamAF1]

I live between Sac and San Francisco and this part of the country we have pretty mild winters and no snow (lots of rain though). Not cold enough here to have the wintery weather that the midwest and east coast endures.

If we want to see snow we just drive to the mountains of Tahoe a couple hours drive.

[mxcolin]

Originally Posted by mixxalot

Not in the mornings been 30-35 degrees FREEZING!

It’s been 30-35 for a microscopic portion of most people’s days. And that happens maybe twice a week on average. No ice. No snow. No frost. Have you ever experienced real winter?

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by mixxalot

Not in the mornings been 30-35 degrees FREEZING!

Oh, I thought you were complaining about the *daytime* in Sacramento not getting as 'warm' as San Diego in winter. Because that's where the statistical differences in winter are -- in the daytime (60s vs 50s on average). It's the mornings you dislike? That actually puzzles me, bc the winter morning lows in Sacramento are almost identical to those in Inland San Diego (Rancho Bernardo, Poway, Escondido, Ramona, Santee, El Cajon, etc), which all average in the 30s, so I'm not sure why you perceive the nighttime so differently in the Central Valley. Did you live much closer to the coast in SD? We're always so cold in Scripps Ranch in the nighttime and mornings that it totally reminds me of growing up in Walnut Creek. We've had the heater on every morning but one during the last five weeks. Driving yesterday morning was 39f here, and talk radio reported 38f in Poway and 35f in Ramona. I also saw frost in the San Dieguito river valley just east of Del Mar. This is normal throughout all the state's interior valleys. Downtown, however, was 47 -- big difference. SF is like that too. The Pacific keeps it milder. I do agree with you that the inland nights are cold, and in fact I usually wear a scarf and gloves if I'm walking the dog in the evenings and it's in the 40s, but it's good to remember that most of the country is much colder this time of year, even the Deep South. I was just surprised you perceived the mornings as so much colder in Sac when we've got the same down here (away from the water).

The daytime today, however, will be ten degrees warmer than Sac, as we start our warm spell! Nevertheless, enjoy the upcoming week of 60s as most of the country sucks. Count your blessings that you've never lived in real cold. :-)