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It's definitely easy to see why people would enjoy low to mid 70s in the summer, but I don't think that means Oakland has the best weather. Honestly, most of coastal SoCal is about the same temperature in summer, and at least they have real and usable beaches too.
It's why some people think it does though , part of the same reason why they think coastal SoCal does as well.
Yeah actually. I like the weather in LBC because it's warmer than other parts of coastal SoCal. And yeah, I think coastal SoCal weather sucks. I like 80s-90s. Coastal SoCal rarely gets to those temperatures. I grew up there and never enjoyed the weather. It was never warm enough in summer and never cold enough in winter. I always wished we would get the 80s-90s like the rest of the country in summer, and I always wished we would get some snow in winter like so many other parts of the country. So like I said, very subjective to claim that Oakland has the best weather in the country.
Coastal SoCal SST have warmed up very nicely in the past 2-3 years. SST have been around 75F in San Diego for most of July. Overnight lows in the upper 60s so you can comfortably wear shorts and a tee shirt at midnight and at 7AM. I think you'd like our summer weather now.
Since I'm a weather nut, here's my opinion on the weather of these cities.
First of all, think in the larger context of the United States, all these cities have great weather compared to the rest of the U.S. in terms of the lack of inclement violent destructive weather, temperature extremes, duration of very cold and/or very hot weather, days of minor inclement weather like when it rains on your parade or picnic.
All four cites are in a Mediterranean Climate, mostly that means, overall mild weather year round, and many, many consecutive days and months of rainless days and pleasant fair days.
Sacramento - my preference over Oakland, Long Beach, San Jose. Sacramento has the most varied weather. Sac has the closest to having all 4 seasons. Yet, Sacramento is not as cold and wet as Portland or Seattle in the winter, certainly not nearly as cold as most of the rest of the U.S. Sacramento winters are not nearly as cold as Denver. Sacramento summers are not nearly as uncomfortable as much of the U.S. overall, for example, Austin, San Antonio, Phoenix to name a few have by far more uncomfortable summer days.
Sacramento has a real fall season with a lot of fall color compared to the other California cities. It has a real summer, you can count on very sunny days, on average a high of high 80's to low 90's during the day. But unlike the rest of the U.S., Sacramento summer mornings, late evenings, and nights are one of the coolest in the nation, high 50's to low 60's with cool ocean breezes; that's on par with Portland and Seattle summer night and morning weather.
Sac compared to Austin, San Antonio or Phoenix has by far more comfortable summer weather overall. Any heat waves in Sac are not nearly has severe nor last nearly has long as the south, and southwest (Austin, SA, Phx). Overall, a Sacramento summer is no worse than most of the humid east and midwest, with a big advantage of having very cool mornings - which means at least 6 hours of guaranteed very cool weather in the middle of summer; whereas, much of the U.S. in the MORNING AND NIGHT stays in the lows 70's and 80's with uncomfortable dew points throughout the summer, Sacramento's dew point is always in the comfortable range all day long throughout the summer.
Sac is better than San Jose because Sac gets more rain, more likely to have a clear sunny hot summer day, more likely to have a cold winter day and morning.
You might think why is that better. It's better simply because Sacramento offers more variety. In the fall and winter Sacramento looks more like the midwest and east, than San Jose, Long Beach or Oakland does. In the winter, Sacramento is closer to real Snowy Winter environments...winter sports can be had more easily and more often than all four of the other cities.
Sac is better than Oakland because it has a REAL summer. A typical summer day in Sac will start out at the same temp as Oakland 58F to 62F, but Sacramento will top out on average at 88F to 92F, while Oakland will top out on average at 68F to 73F. Sacramento will have a solid 6 hours of very comfortable cool temps like Oakland both in the morning and night but with the advantage of full sun and pool party SUNNY weather from 2 to 6pm, with a warm balmy backyard-garden weather in the evening. Oakland may stay overcast for most of the day during the middle of the summer. Like SF, I hear people complain of "cold" summer evenings and nights in Oakland.
Sacramento is better than Long Beach because it gets more RAIN and has a real FALL and WINTER compared to Long Beach.
In the dead of winter, Sacramento will have days that look and feel like Portland and Seattle. It may stay overcast, foggy, with light rain all day. Sacramento will have almost twice the amount of solid winter rain storms than Long Beach.
You get the wonderful feeling of being cleansed with rain a lot more often than Long Beach. It is more often that you have two, three solid days of a soaking rain in Sacramento compared to Long Beach in the winter. Sacramento has more green with rivers and creeks closer to the majority of the population. Sacramento overall is by far more green than Long Beach in the Fall and Winter.
Sacramento is closer to Real Winter environments having the Sierra Nevada(Tahoe Area) 1-2hours away, the Northern Sierra at lower elevations gets twice as much snow as SoCal mountains. In the same distance you would drive from Long Beach to mountain winter environments, Sacramento has by far more beautiful winter environments with less than half the population to overcrowd and lessen your experience in a rural, natural environment.
Not only does Sac have Tahoe in it's backyard it has the Mt. Lassen Area, and Mt. Shasta Areas to the North, and the Yosemite area to the South, all as much closer than coastal SoCal is to these types of natural environments. Sacramento has GREEN FORESTED environments, not rocky barren desert mountains in its backyard compared to Long Beach.
Sac is better than Oakland because it has a REAL summer. A typical summer day in Sac will start out at the same temp as Oakland 58F to 62F, but Sacramento will top out on average at 88F to 92F, while Oakland will top out on average at 68F to 73F. Sacramento will have a solid 6 hours of very comfortable cool temps like Oakland both in the morning and night but with the advantage of full sun and pool party SUNNY weather from 2 to 6pm, with a warm balmy backyard-garden weather in the evening. Oakland may stay overcast for most of the day during the middle of the summer.
Sacramento is scorching hot in the summer, often insufferable. I lived there for 3 years and enjoyed fall and spring, winters not so much, but the summers were especially brutal.
The heat just permeates well into late night. For someone from the Bay, it was a nonstop heatwave.
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Like SF, I hear people complain of "cold" summer evenings and nights in Oakland.
Thats my favorite part of summer, the cool nights. Such a refreshing departure from just about everywhere else...
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