Do we underestimate and downplay how Great Sacramento weather really is? (Los Angeles: power lines, small towns)

[tstieber]

Chim, we are in the city of San Diego, in eastern Scripps Ranch, just south of Poway. We're about ten minutes east of I-15. Hilly topography, noticeably less marine layer or humidity than most of the area, more heat and cold, more dry and wet, stronger Santa Ana winds.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by tstieber

Chim, we are in the city of San Diego, in eastern Scripps Ranch, just south of Poway. We're about ten minutes east of I-15. Hilly topography, noticeably less marine layer or humidity than most of the area, more heat and cold, more dry and wet, stronger Santa Ana winds.

Oh, ok, I thought you were in Poway or even further northeast of Poway.

Brother, this heat is brutal right now, I don't think it has ever been this bad in Sacramento.

[mixxalot]

I want to move back to San Diego but hard to find a job there with covid

[shelato]

Originally Posted by tstieber

Chim, we are in the city of San Diego, in eastern Scripps Ranch, just south of Poway. We're about ten minutes east of I-15. Hilly topography, noticeably less marine layer or humidity than most of the area, more heat and cold, more dry and wet, stronger Santa Ana winds.

That is a really nice area of San Diego, I can see why you like it. I spent a couple of years living in UTC and there was a lot that I miss about the place.

Originally Posted by mixxalot

I want to move back to San Diego but hard to find a job there with covid

As I recall you do a lot of programming. There was a cluster of bioinformatics jobs kind of around UCSD and the Salk Institute, that you might be qualified to do. The climate was really nice in San Diego but the ratio of housing prices to income (what locals referred to as the sunshine tax) was bad which made it much tougher to save money and just get ahead in SD vs Sacramento. This was one of the big reasons I moved back to Sacramento. When we are having weather like this past couple of days, I do miss San Diego. But financially the best choice I ever made was to leave San Diego.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by mixxalot

I want to move back to San Diego but hard to find a job there with covid

Mixxy and TS,
So did you grow-up in SD too? Where abouts? I lived in Clairemont.

Sacramento weather and all of NorCal weather is really bad now because of the heatwave and wild fires spewing smoke all over California.

What's ups with Monterey? It's air quality has been 150-200, but Santa Cruz as been "only" 60-90?

We did the Pyramid Lake trail near Tahoe. 1/2 hour before you get to South Lake Tahoe, just past Camp Sacramento off of Highway 50. The air was bad all over even at 7,000 feet. We started the hike at sunrise finished by 11am. Then drove down into South Lake Tahoe. You could barely see the mountains because of the overcast-by-smoke sky, by late afternoon, the view across the lake at lake level was complete white-out; it looked like you were looking out on the ocean when it is completely overcast. You could not see the mountains across the lake. So Sad. But it was nice just to get out of town. South Lake Tahoe was surprisingly busy considering the smoke, the casinos were fairly busy too.

I don't recommend going up in elevation to "get away from the smoke", better to stay at sea level, even if the air quality is the same. If the air quality is 50-100 in Pacifica(the coast) and it is the same in the Sierra's at 6,000-7,000feet; it is better to stay at sea level.

If California Fire Season continues to expand in duration and intensity we will leave California. No place is safe. We are looking at the Big Hawaii to live part of the year-Kailua-Kona and Waimea, Big Island and Vancouver, Washington and Brookings, Oregon.

Sept 7, 2020
Tahoe 85-88F for a high temp.
Sacramento 105-107F

[shelato]

You seem to know where to find better weather records than me. What I am wondering is how anomalous has the heat been this year? Based on memory, it seemed like we would have a few days maybe 2 or 3 days of really hot weather (above 105), but even when that occurred it seemed to be 108 or less. I just don't really recall past years where the weather got or was even forecast over 110.

What I am wondering is if climate change is adding energy to everything, including high pressure systems which means that those previous heat waves are just more intense?

As to the fires themselves I am curious if there is a better regulatory response. Climate change may be causing more bark beetle infestations in the Sierra and Sudden Oak Death along the coast killing trees and adding to the fuel load, but the California logging industry is also dramatically smaller today than in the 1960's. There used to be small towns in the Sierras and in the Coastal mountains harvesting this wood and turning it into limber. I remember the court battles over saving spotted owls and the Earth first people chaining themselves to trees and lots of limber mills were closing.

I do wonder if we did actually harvest these dead trees whether we wouldn't have all of this fuel in the forests to create these massive wildfires?

[Racer46]

Originally Posted by shelato

You seem to know where to find better weather records than me. What I am wondering is how anomalous has the heat been this year? Based on memory, it seemed like we would have a few days maybe 2 or 3 days of really hot weather (above 105), but even when that occurred it seemed to be 108 or less. I just don't really recall past years where the weather got or was even forecast over 110.

What I am wondering is if climate change is adding energy to everything, including high pressure systems which means that those previous heat waves are just more intense?

As to the fires themselves I am curious if there is a better regulatory response. Climate change may be causing more bark beetle infestations in the Sierra and Sudden Oak Death along the coast killing trees and adding to the fuel load, but the California logging industry is also dramatically smaller today than in the 1960's. There used to be small towns in the Sierras and in the Coastal mountains harvesting this wood and turning it into limber. I remember the court battles over saving spotted owls and the Earth first people chaining themselves to trees and lots of limber mills were closing.

I do wonder if we did actually harvest these dead trees whether we wouldn't have all of this fuel in the forests to create these massive wildfires?

The timber harvesting would reduce the amount that could or would burn.


No harvesting means nature controls the growth and fires would simply be more likely and more serious.


Forest fires are a part of the nature. Then add electric lines and now man becomes a cause and then arsonists. Can man reduce the likelihood and severity by controlled and intelligence harvesting? Probably.

[tstieber]

I did not grow up in San Diego. I grew up in Walnut Creek, and for a few years, in Germany. I was in the park at Walnut Creek adjacent to the foothills of Mount Diablo State Park. Very beautiful area with rolling Golden Hills and oak trees. For the most part, I thought the climate was really nice, especially compared to Central Europe! My husband and I first moved to San Diego in 1997 before we were married, to get our graduate degrees, then in 2005, we bought a condo in Emeryville and would spend spring and fall in the Bay area and winter and summer in San Diego for many years. We even had our business based in the Bay area during that time. We really enjoyed going back and forth and optimizing the seasons for maximum sunshine. Spending time in San Francisco and Marin county during those years was really great, because most of the country hadn't caught up to the food and culture of the big cities yet, so there was just so much more to do in the Bay area then in San Diego, Plus I would argue it is just a smidge more scenic. 6 years ago, we bought our home in San Diego and kept back and forth going for a little while but sold the condo in the Bay area 2 years ago. We wanted to work from home, get a backyard and a pool, and have a quieter day to day lifestyle. It was much more affordable to do that in San Diego, plus the city had really evolved into a more vibrant, Urban, hipster place, that we could pretty much do and eat everything hear that we could in the Bay area.I'm really glad we made the move, but if it weren't for Covid, we might consider spending two to four weeks a year in the Bay area. We miss it a lot, but not enough to want to live there full-time.

We've been so lucky to have dodged all the big fires in California over the last three or more years, so we really didn't have to deal with Smoky skies until a few days ago. Now, it's unfortunately been completely overcast with smoke, although air quality has been in the moderate category at the surface. and yesterday it was about 25 degrees cooler than on Sunday, Plus we had such a thick Marine layer this morning that it was actually drizzling. So we are thankful for that.

at this point in our lives, we would consider San Diego our home and the Bay area our home away from home. :-)

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Mixxy and TS,
So did you grow-up in SD too? Where abouts? I lived in Clairemont.

Sacramento weather and all of NorCal weather is really bad now because of the heatwave and wild fires spewing smoke all over California.

What's ups with Monterey? It's air quality has been 150-200, but Santa Cruz as been "only" 60-90?

We did the Pyramid Lake trail near Tahoe. 1/2 hour before you get to South Lake Tahoe, just past Camp Sacramento off of Highway 50. The air was bad all over even at 7,000 feet. We started the hike at sunrise finished by 11am. Then drove down into South Lake Tahoe. You could barely see the mountains because of the overcast-by-smoke sky, by late afternoon, the view across the lake at lake level was complete white-out; it looked like you were looking out on the ocean when it is completely overcast. You could not see the mountains across the lake. So Sad. But it was nice just to get out of town. South Lake Tahoe was surprisingly busy considering the smoke, the casinos were fairly busy too.

I don't recommend going up in elevation to "get away from the smoke", better to stay at sea level, even if the air quality is the same. If the air quality is 50-100 in Pacifica(the coast) and it is the same in the Sierra's at 6,000-7,000feet; it is better to stay at sea level.

If California Fire Season continues to expand in duration and intensity we will leave California. No place is safe. We are looking at the Big Hawaii to live part of the year-Kailua-Kona and Waimea, Big Island and Vancouver, Washington and Brookings, Oregon.

Sept 7, 2020
Tahoe 85-88F for a high temp.
Sacramento 105-107F

[Chimérique]

Hey Shelato,
I think the main cause of the abundance of the wildfires is:

1. Population: Way more people now live near or in those heavily forested areas, exponentially more.
2. PGE, and other utilities have an ancient infrastructure/power grid that causes the fires.
3. Population: Way more people visit those heavily forested areas causing the fires by irresponsible behavior.
4. Forest Management: We no longer have Controlled burns to burn the dead accumulated pilings of branches, leaves, etc.
5. Climate change, but specifically what exactly has changed in California And we need the hard science to back it up. For example, Tule Fog's absence from the Sacramento area in particular. From my own observation, it's been going on almost 10 years now; but I'd like to see the actual numbers, measurement.

[mixxalot]

With the horrid air from fires, I definitely want to move to a cheaper state that does not always burn each year and have sky high real estate prices and toxic air.