Help me to understand California weather

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by saibot

It's absolutely true. Once you cross the Cascades, summers are very hot. My father lives in Wenatchee, about 100 miles as the crow flies from Seattle, but over the mountains. When I visited him in July, it was in the upper 90s-low 100s every day, hotter than at home in California.

You don't even need to cross the Cascades to see heat like that. Even the Willamette Valley of Oregon, 80s, 90s, and even 100s are common in the summer. If you want to stay under 80°F, you have to be right on the coast.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by EckyX

Appreciated!

We're aiming for early retirement (high savings rate, low living expenses), so although we'll probably continue with side gigs, we won't really need jobs to get by. She does need some access to medical facilities, which Burlington, at ~40,000 people, actually has quite a bit of. There's a fantastic regional research hospital here.

Cool summers are definitely more important than milder winters, but both would be nice. We already deal with and sometimes even enjoy 5 months of snow and extreme cold. I'm aware these sorts of places tend to be more expensive, but we're willing (and happy) to live in areas that might be cooler than most want.

My understanding was that inland Washington actually gets quite hot during summer, often into the 90's, and that you really need to hug the coast there too. Is this perhaps not the case?

My suggestions:
1. Bremerton Washington, or anywhere in the Olympic rain shadow area.
2. Anywhere on the Washington or Oregon Coast.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

I grew up in the SF Bay Area, lived many years in the PNW, on the western side, from basically the Portland, OR area all the way to the Canadian border, and most recently moved from the far north coast of CA, right along the OR border.

As far as the weather you're talking about, Eureka, CA is where the coolest year-round weather starts, that doesn't include freezing temps - that's basically in the 60's/50's max range year-round on average. Decent entertainment, but big into pot culture and very crunchy as far as hippy culture. Very blue as far as how they vote - democrats and independents rule here.

Crescent City, CA is the same weather, and much cheaper. Beautiful scenery, not much going for it as far as culture goes. This is Trump country.

Brookings, OR has the same weather, but has a lot nicer culture - more Republican, but a decent mix of Democrats, more artsy.

It gets more rural going north, with less amenities and less Democrats, until you get to around Eugene. And, the farther north you go, the more you will have to deal with ice and snow.

For me, if I could afford any of the areas I've mentioned, I'd move to Brookings, OR. Even though I'm Democrat and most of the inhabitants of Brookings are probably Republican, I always found the residents to be extremely friendly with great manners and to have a live and let live mentality.

Once you get north of Eureka, expect the culture to be gun-friendly. That's not a bad thing, in my opinion. They are hunters, for the most part. But, they will defend their rights to have guns to hunt with. If you can respect that, you can live among them just fine.

I moved away from the SF Bay Area when I was young, and moved to the PNW, and ended up living amongst both hippies and rednecks who hunted for food for their families. So, I have no problem with guns used for that purpose.

But, if you intend to be a fanatic who is against that, you won't fit in and probably won't be happy there.

FWIW.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by msgsing

Concurrently the local electric company has continuously raised rates. In the summer it's typical for a modest single family home or condo using central air con to have bills in the 700 per month range. We use ceiling and floor fans.

I see you are in San Diego. I had an interesting conversation with a solar panel company representative last week as he was canvassing our neighborhood in South OC. The solar guy kept talking about the high electric rates we have and how they were about to go up again, and I was confused because our rates aren't high at all.

It turned out that the half of our street he'd already visited is connected to San Diego Gas & Electric, and the other having (including me) has Southern California Edison. Apparently a bunch of our neighbors are paying more than 2x what we are for power just because their houses are a little farther down the street. No city/county lines are anywhere near. It's just weird.

We don't run central a/c, but we do use a number of fans and one portable a/c unit in hot weather. Our electric bill has never been higher than $80/month. So costs can certainly vary tremendously depending on where you are and which company serves you.