Do we underestimate and downplay how Great Sacramento weather really is? (San Diego: gas, transit)

[sacdukeman]

I also notice air quality tends to be ignored - we're pretty bad in that regard.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by tstieber

Chim does use facts; nobody is disputing them. It's just that they are random, selective facts based on odd times of night that don't give the perspective most people are looking for, and they don't reflect how most people experience day to day weather, which is during daytime hours. He also likes to ignore other facts that don't fit his narrative. I can tell you my mother was just complaining to me about the constant mid-90s in Walnut Creek recently; of course it's nice at midnight, but she's asleep then. So yes, Sacramento is still hot in the summer. I think this thread has gone on this long because it seems incredible to everyone that Chim keeps disputing it when everyone else believes otherwise.

Actually, yes, people do dispute the facts. And no, the facts I choose aren't random, in fact, they are completely and totally consistent and they fit the averages over the course of the day, and year, and not just summer temps.

I'll dispute your facts in this post, Portland did not have lower humidity "than CA cities", maybe a few randomly chosen cities to fit your narrative. In fact, Portland did not have lower humidity than Sacramento and many other CA cities when I checked at 4:00PM yesterday.

The reason this thread has gone on so long is not just because of me, but because of you and anyone else who is interested in Sacramento weather.

Yes, Sacramento is hot in the summer, like 3/4 of the rest of the metro's in the USA, but Sacramento is also cool in the summer for many hours and many other cities cannot say they cool to very comfortable levels (50's, 60's) for as long as Sacramento does in the summer.

You don't speak for everyone by the way, as I don't. The facts can be "incredible" if you choose to ignore them.

I have never said 99F or 100F at 5pm is not hot, rather, I've put it in relative terms as in comparing it with other cities across the USA, not just California coastal cities. And I talk about how long it was hot or cool.

I, also, post, facts that even I am surprised with such as how often Sacramento is as cool as the pacific northwest is consistently all summer long in the morning, and how long it stays hot, very hot, in the desert southwest and always in comparison with Sacramento.

July is almost over and we still have not had "115F everyday in the summer all day long". We never have, and we probably (hopefully) never will.

And your little story about your mother complaining about mid 90's. Well, mothers across our nation, more the 3/4 of our nation are experiencing the same "uncomfortable" hot weather. And it wasn't in the mid 90's all day long either, but in many others cities across the country it was an uncomfortable temp throughout the day and night. And your mother was fortunate enough to not have to experience 90F, 80F, or even 70F at midnight because if she did she would be even more miserable, and her A/C would never get a rest, and her utility bill would be even higher.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by tstieber

Chim, I have to strongly disagree about summer having only 4 to 6 hours per day difference between Oakland and Sacramento. When I leave Emeryville on a summer morning at 9 AM to visit my parents in Walnut Creek to have breakfast with them, it is consistently warmer by the time I arrive at 9:30 AM than it is ALL DAY in Emeryville/Berkeley/Oakland, and it stays warmer until at least sunset. It rarely breaks 75f in the coastal East Bay even by afternoon, but it's usually nudging 80f in Walnut Creek by 9:30 AM, if it's a day in the low 90s (on a 100f day, it'll be in the high 80s by that time of day). So that's more like 11-12 hours a day that it's hotter inland than by the bay. I'd say it's more like 4 to 6 hours where the temps are the same, during the tail end of the night (although inland lows have been around 63-64 while bayside lows have been around 58). Case in point: at noon, it's 83 in Sacramento, and only 68 in Oakland. That's 15 degrees difference. There's no way that Sacramento just passed Oakland's temp and will be back down to Oakland's temp in a few hours, as it'll keep growing. It's night and day on daytime temps. (Update at 1 PM: Oakland is up to 70, Sac to 87).

I agree that the overall Mediterranean climate patterns are similar between the Bay Area and Sacramento, but the daytime hours in Sacramento are much warmer in Sacramento than the coastal Bay Area for far more than 4 to 6 hours a day, for 1 to 2 months a year. As I mentioned, May through October in Sacramento averages warmer than ANY month in Oakland. I spent years living along the bay near Berkeley and found that warm days are few and far between. It's generally pretty cool most of the time, most of the year, which is totally different from being inland. I don't know if you realize just how cool the air is by the bay.

Read my post again, I was talking about the whole year.

And your post, sort of proves a point I have, is that we overwhelmingly compare ourselves with the Cali coast as you have done with Emeryville/Oakland. Which sort of does us a disservice because by only comparing ourselves with a very very mild and very very comfortable summer locale such as Emeryville/Oakland gives us an "unfair" distorted sense of our summer weather because very very few places across the USA are as comfortable and mild as Emeryville/Oakland in the summer.

You can look at it two ways: You can focus on the fact that Walnut Creek/Sacramento can get too hot on a summer's day compared to Emeryville/Oakland. Or you can focus on the fact that Walnut Creek/Sacramento gets almost as cool as Emeryville/Oakland regularly everyday and the fact the we are close enough to Emeryville/Oakland that we can actually go there to find relief should we desire.

Many many other cities across the nation do not cool as much and for as long as Walnut Creek/Sacramento does in the summer and they cannot just drive 1/2 hour to 1.5 hours to find such cool and mild temps as Emeryville/Oakland in the summer. Texas and Florida cities, for example, get hotter for much longer part of the summer day, never even come close to cooling to the Emeryville/Oakland and Walnut Creek/Sacramento summer low averages. And Texas and Florida cities would have to drive 15, 20 hours or fly 5 hours to find such cool/mild temps.

[Chimérique]

July 25, 2018 7:30 AM

Orlando - 99F heat index, 77%, 78 DP

Phoenix - 96F heat index, 29%, 58 DP

San Antonio - 91F heat index, 70%, 73 DP

Bakersfield - 83F heat index, 46%, 59 DP

Denver - 73F, 51%, 54 DP
Fresno - 71F, 54%, 54 DP, the heat index temp is till the same as the actual temp despite the lower dew point.
San Diego-Scripps Ranch - 70F, 88%, 66 DP

Portland - 66F, 63%, 53 DP

Sacramento - 65F, 70%, 55 DP - Air Quality GOOD
Walnut Creek - 63F, 73%, 55 DP - Air Quality MODERATE

Emeryville - 58F, 91%, 56 DP, Air Quality MODERATE

[TacoSoup]

Once again a 7:30am weather update. You’ve established 1000x over its cool in the morning & late night, we get it. What’s the daytime high today suppose to be? The weather channel is telling me 105 today.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

You can look at it two ways: You can focus on the fact that Walnut Creek/Sacramento can get too hot on a summer's day compared to Emeryville/Oakland. Or you can focus on the fact that Walnut Creek/Sacramento gets almost as cool as Emeryville/Oakland regularly everyday and the fact the we are close enough to Emeryville/Oakland that we can actually go there to find relief should we desire.

You are saying one could focus on temperatures in the middle of the day when they are awake, or they could focus on temperatures in the middle of the night when they are asleep. I don't think it should surprise you that most people are outside when it's really hot and will notice that a lot more than the refreshing cool of 4 am. High temps affect people way more than low temps.

[WizardOfRadical]

Is this the new normal, 100 degrees until October!!!!!!!!

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by tstieber

You are saying one could focus on temperatures in the middle of the day when they are awake, or they could focus on temperatures in the middle of the night when they are asleep. I don't think it should surprise you that most people are outside when it's really hot and will notice that a lot more than the refreshing cool of 4 am. High temps affect people way more than low temps.

Actually, one should look at it BOTH ways, because they both are correct.

People in warm/hot weather summers have common sense and they know (or should know) when to avoid the hottest times of the day, and limit their exposure to it.

Fortunately, Sacramento, actually has a COOL and COMFORTABLE "time of the day", like 4-6 hours and even more if you add in night hours during a typical hot summer day; whereas; many places are hot and uncomfortable all day and night long.

My mother, for example, in her retirement years, would get up as early as 6am, sometimes as late as 8am, to enjoy reading and dining on the outside patio in the shade in the morning as late as noon it was still comfortable for her.

In fact, I would warn her "don't go out it's going to be hot", and she would always remind me that its cool and comfortable in the morning. She would garden, walk her dog, go to the river, do her laundry, drive to the grocery store, schedule her doctor appointments in the morning, and so and so on, all in temps from as low as 53F to 75F in the middle of the summer, despite a high temp later that day of 90F to 105F.

When the high temp was more like the actual average of 92F she would have even more hours to enjoy in comfortable weather. She would nap from 3pm - 7pm. She basically lived the Spanish Mediterranean lifestyle where they have a "Siesta" in the late afternoon. Duh, now i get why Spain has done that for the last 500 years!

Most of the country's metro do not have cool/comfortable mornings like Sacramento (and Walnut Creek) in the summer.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Actually, one should look at it BOTH ways, because they both are correct.

People in warm/hot weather summers have common sense and they know (or should know) when to avoid the hottest times of the day, and limit their exposure to it.

Fortunately, Sacramento, actually has a COOL and COMFORTABLE "time of the day", like 4-6 hours and even more if you add in night hours during a typical hot summer day; whereas; many places are hot and uncomfortable all day and night long.

My mother, for example, in her retirement years, would get up as early as 6am, sometimes as late as 8am, to enjoy reading and dining on the outside patio in the shade in the morning as late as noon it was still comfortable for her.

In fact, I would warn her "don't go out it's going to be hot", and she would always remind me that its cool and comfortable in the morning. She would garden, walk her dog, go to the river, do her laundry, drive to the grocery store, schedule her doctor appointments in the morning, and so and so on, all in temps from as low as 53F to 75F in the middle of the summer, despite a high temp later that day of 90F to 105F.

When the high temp was more like the actual average of 92F she would have even more hours to enjoy in comfortable weather. She would nap from 3pm - 7pm. She basically lived the Spanish Mediterranean lifestyle where they have a "Siesta" in the late afternoon. Duh, now i get why Spain has done that for the last 500 years!

Most of the country's metro do not have cool/comfortable mornings like Sacramento (and Walnut Creek) in the summer.

I do agree, it's a wonderful feature of the climate, just that it doesn't negate the afternoon heat. It's more of a complement to it. I'm not sure when the last time was that Sacramento actually hit 53 degrees in the middle of summer though!

[tstieber]

7 PM temps:
Sacramento: 100f (24 percent humidity)
Oakland: 66f
Redding: 107f
San Diego: 73f
Phoenix: 112f
Los Angeles: 81f
San Francisco: 61f
Portland: 93f (22 percent humidity -- drier than pretty much anywhere in CA!)
Seattle: 87 (27 percent humidity)

Most amazing is the difference between SF and Sacramento - nearly 40 degrees!