Yesterday, I experienced a 40 degree temperature difference by driving 50 miles (all at sea level).

[snj90]

Definitely neat. Probably the closest experience to that I've had was a gondola lift up Mount Mansfield in Vermont in late August 2008. It was probably 75 or so degrees at the bottom of the mountain and sunny, but you could see some clouds up near the top. And when I got to the top it was really windy and a thermometer up there at the top read 50F.

[AdriannaSmiling]

Wow- I guess I really take our microclimates for granted, having lived here my whole life. FYI, I do like going to San Francisco in the summer to hang out in the city, enjoy the nightlife, and to cool off from time to time (although SF does have an odd day of 90 F about once a summer and that's miserable because there is NO AC in the city), I am much happier living inland where we get "real" summers which means swimming in outdoor pools on weekends. Gotta have at least two months with average highs above 75 F.

As for the heat last Saturday, it cooled down EVERYWHERE on Sunday (temperatures dropped by as much as 30 degrees in the far inland locations) and even more so on Monday and we had some very light rain (unusual for us in June). There were some thunderstorms in the central valley and far east bay but unfortunately, they didn't make their way down here .

Anyway, I enjoyed the very light rain we got on Monday morning because I likely won't see another drop until about September. BTW, I am amazed that you find California microclimates more interesting than my whimsical fantasy climates- as in Rate my fictional climate- You CAN have it all!!! I guess it's because our microclimates are real?

[trlhiker]

Although I have never experienced microclimates before, I have seen springtime backdoor fronts with 30 degree temperature differences. I was driving near Elizabeth City once when the temps were near 60 and rainy, in a matter of a mile my windows fogged up at the exact moment we came out of the clouds. We stopped and the temps were in the 80's. You could see the cloud bank we came out of. It was amazing.

[jasper12]

Las Vegas can be similar in winter, 35 with wind chill in morning, up to 75 by afternoon, down back to 40 after nightfall.

My car looked like a clothes pile, I needed a jacket, jeans for morning, shorts, short sleeve shirt for afternoon, back to jeans for evening.