Question about May Gray/June Gloom (Santa Ana, Oxnard: house, buy, living in)

[TheLonelyGoatherd]

Hello,

We are new to California and living in Thousand Oaks. We LOVE living here so far! I was curious about May Gray/June Gloom

1) does it come as far inland as Thousand Oaks or is it just along the coast?

2) Is it overcast all day or is it just in the mornings?

I'm looking forward to it actually and hoping it does happen here in TO. While I love the sunny days, I'm looking forward to doing some hikes without all of my sun gear.

[OptimusPrime69]

It's funny to me how everyone associates southern Cal as almost constant "fun in the sun"... and yes, while we do have generally pleasant and sunny weather, we still get lots of gloomy, gray days too. IMO it sometimes lasts for days at a time with constant gray and then on other days it'l burn off by the afternoon. Mostly sticks to the close, but some days it reaches inland areas too.

[TheLonelyGoatherd]

OptimusPrime69 you are so correct! The general public outside of CA are so wrong about so many things.

I am very pale and sensitive to the sun. I lived in Florida at one point and I was miserable there. I could rarely do anything outside since where I lived was 95 degrees 6 months out of the year and mostly 80s the rest of the time. So then people were surprised at my being excited to move to CA for my husband's job. "But you can't handle the sun and heat." And I've had to explain to them that the average high temps for Thousand Oaks, even in summer is 75. Of course many days it will be much hotter but it's not that solid 90 degree heat for the summer like it is on the east coast southern states. And there are lots of cloudy days in between. I went to weather.com and searched 2017 and counted how many days were over 80 last year. Part of June and maybe half of July and August. Then three days around Sept 1st of 100s. Then right back down to cool.

I also hated the cold. Anything below 40 is too cold for me. So California is just perfect for me. We are thrilled to be here. I don't ever plan on leaving.

So Thousand Oaks should be getting some overcast days then hopefully? I know it sounds silly but I'm excited to experience all of CA's "weather" phenomenons. Pinapple Express, Santa Anas, June Gloom, etc.

[OptimusPrime69]

Originally Posted by TheLonelyGoatherd

OptimusPrime69 you are so correct! The general public outside of CA are so wrong about so many things.

I am very pale and sensitive to the sun. I lived in Florida at one point and I was miserable there. I could rarely do anything outside since where I lived was 95 degrees 6 months out of the year and mostly 80s the rest of the time. So then people were surprised at my being excited to move to CA for my husband's job. "But you can't handle the sun and heat." And I've had to explain to them that the average high temps for Thousand Oaks, even in summer is 75. Of course many days it will be much hotter but it's not that solid 90 degree heat for the summer like it is on the east coast southern states. And there are lots of cloudy days in between. I went to weather.com and searched 2017 and counted how many days were over 80 last year. Part of June and maybe half of July and August. Then three days around Sept 1st of 100s. Then right back down to cool.

I also hated the cold. Anything below 40 is too cold for me. So California is just perfect for me. We are thrilled to be here. I don't ever plan on leaving.

So Thousand Oaks should be getting some overcast days then hopefully? I know it sounds silly but I'm excited to experience all of CA's "weather" phenomenons. Pinapple Express, Santa Anas, June Gloom, etc.

Yes, I lived in Florida for 15 years before moving to southern California.... "Hot" here in southern Cal is not what "hot" is in Florida. Florida is reliably HOT and muggy for 6 months out of the year. Very consistent heat and humidity. One can expect absolutely zero breaks in the heat and humidity from May to October... California is not so reliably hot....at least coastal southern California.... quite pleasant in comparison. You have many overcast and "cool" days in my opinion. The nights are usually cool. One thing I do miss about Florida are those balmy summer nights...

[nightlysparrow]

The June Gloom has indeed been a usual thing, but with climate change, weather schedules are now a bit unpredictable. Buy a lot of hats and white clothing

You can always drive over to Malibu or up to Oxnard or Ventura when you crave some coolness or fog, even on the hottest days here in TO.

[DKM]

I moved here in early June and it was June gloom on the first day and then no more. When I asked, I was told that we get about 4 or 5 days of fog in May, and when we do its usually gone by noon. You can often see the fog west of Newbury Park and also south in Malibu Canyon. Any marine layer has to clear about 1500 feet to hit us unless its coming from the west...even then maybe 1000 feet. When I looked it up, we get clear or mostly clear weather 330 days a year.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

I have been on the coast my entire life and for me it is one of the things that I love about the area. Fog rolling in during the late part of the day and staying into the morning before the sun burns it off. In May watching the fog and the clouds remain almost up to the first of July. Wondering if we would be seeing Fireworks that year or not. Many years July 3rd was the last day of the fog cover and a few years I remember watching half a firework as the other half was in the fog cover.

For the most part this is a coastal thing. I have known TO to have fog but that does seem to be rare and more of a morning thing than the constant fog that we have on the coast.

[TheLonelyGoatherd]

Thanks for the replies! Very interesting reading. The thing I'm noticing about the weather is, gorgeous as it is, the sun is a lot more intense. If we happen to be out hiking or just outside in the middle of the day on a weekend, and there are no clouds in the sky, it could be 70 degrees and it will feel so hot!
I said to my husband when I hear people say it gets hot here, I think it's mostly the straight sunny days with no clouds that makes it feel hot. Because if it's party cloudy it feels great. Overcast and it feels cool.

Florida always felt muggy and sticky and yes very hot. But the only thing going for Florida is that there was a lot of cloudy days so while that didn't help the mugginess, it did help power down the intensity of the sun.

So I'm finding that I actually don't enjoy the super sunny days. Or at least I won't for the summer. Once it cools down and evening comes sooner I'm sure I'll be fine.

I hope we do get more fog though. I've found it to be almost magical. Not at all like east coast fog. I don't know how it's just different. But I love it. I may have to try to get closer to the ocean when we buy a house one day. Oh wait, can't afford it.

[DaniellaG]

I also lived in FL and Thousand Oaks. To me even if with the cloud cover in FL it feels like a sauna and is less comfortable then Thousand Oaks in the summer. The nice thing in CA even hot days the evenings cool off.

I didn't notice much gloom in Thousand Oaks but when I lived in Ventura you did get the fog

[TheLonelyGoatherd]

Yes Florida is basically an outdoor sauna for 9 months out the years. I've lived in 5 states and never hated anyplace as much as Florida. My husband and I call it poor man's California.

The weather here is the best in the US in my opinion. We just love hiking on the weekends and were taken back at how hot 70 degrees felt when we were in a park and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. This was in the middle of the day when the sun was the strongest. When the day before it was partly cloudy and 70 and it felt fantastic and not too hot at all. So now when we're going to be outdoors I find I pay more attention to cloudiness than temperature. 80 and cloudy won't feel near as warm as 70 with no clouds with regards to hiking.