I was bored over the weekend, so put together a list of interesting weather facts about Coastal Southern California.
All of the weather pertains to the period of December 1, 2013 to November 30, 2014, and comes from
Weather Forecast & Reports - Long Range & Local | Wunderground | Weather Underground, for Anaheim, California (just south of Los Angeles). Obviously, there is great diversity of weather in Orange County, so this is not representative of all of Orange County. Also, this past year was not representative of our typical year, because of it was one of the hottest and driest on record, but it does give an approximation.
Enjoy! I hope you have as much fun reading them as I did finding them.
1. We had a high temperature of 90 (32c) degrees on January 15, and high temperature of 77 (25c) degrees almost exactly six months later on July 19. Where else are you going to find a high temperature on a day in January thirteen degrees WARMER than a high temperature on a day in July?
2. We had a high temperature of 88 (31c) degrees on: November 26, January 16, March 9, June 3, July 9, August 5, September 30, and October 23 -- or, in other words, 8 of the 12 months of the year. Broken down by season: 3 in Fall, 2 in Winter, 1 in Spring and 2 in Summer. Interesting part of this fact is that you can have the exactly same high temperature on a given day 8 months out of the year, not going to see that many places. Also interesting: it can be hot on any given day of the year.
3. There was a high temperature of 74 (23c) degrees and a low temperature of 56 (13c) degrees (74/56 or 23/13)) on January 25, March 12, April 23, May 8, and November 15. A few points to make here. First, it seems unique to have exactly the same weather on a day spread across 5 months, from the middle of winter, to the far edges of spring and middle of fall. Second, it can be mild (74 degrees) at pretty much any point of the year. Third, it stays chilly at night well into spring, as evidenced by the fact that we had an overnight low on May 8 which was the same as an overnight low during the middle of the winter.
4. These were all of the 100+ degree (38c+) days during the year (in descending order):
• May 15 (104 degrees)
• October 3, May 14 (103 degrees)
• October 2, September 15-16 (102 degrees)
• September 13 (100 degrees)
The hottest days of the year occurring in May and October? More 100 degree (38c) days in October (2) than in June, July and August combined (0)? Where else you going to see that in North America?
5. There were five days this past November where the temperature was 90+ degrees (32c+) (November 5, 6, 7, 8, 27 – and another hit 89 ( November 26)). However, the hottest day in June was 86 degrees (June 4), with no 90+ degree days. Where else might a November be much hotter than June? Also interesting: the coldest night in June was 58 degrees (June 3), which was only a degree warmer (57) than the coldest night in October (October 29), and was also only 2 degrees warmer than the warmest night in January (56 degrees on January 25. A night in January that is only 2 degrees colder than a night in June? Not going to probably find that unless you are in our near the tropics, but at 34 degrees north latitude? And, it has as much to do with a cool June night, as it does a warm January night.
6. For the Fall 2013-Winter 2014 period, the overnight low temperature was below 60 degrees (15.5c) every night from November 5, 2013 all the way to April 6, 2014, a period of almost 5 months. This evidences our uniformly cool/cold nights during the winter, despite the often pleasant warm or even hot days. Compare this to places that have generally colder winters than in coastal Southern California, like Houston, which had 6 nights of 60+ degrees in February alone, with a high water mark of 66 degrees (19c) on February 18; Savannah, Georgia has 21 such nights during the same November-April period, and New Orleans at 16 such nights; both also registering a 70+ degree (21c+) overnight low during that period – something that might happen in coastal Southern California only once a decade or two.
7. The coldest night of the year was December 8, where it dropped to 36 degrees (2.2c). The interesting thing is that this is only 8 or 9 degrees cooler than average nightly low during December and January (44 - 45 degrees or 6.6c)). The December 8 night was only one of three nights during the entire year that dropped into the 30’s (December 9, and 11 being the other two). This means that on only 3 nights did it drop more than 4 or 5 degrees below the average December – January low temperature. This is a testament of how it is paradoxically pretty cold during our winter, but also immune from real cold. In comparison, take Jacksonville, Florida for example. Jacksonville has a similar winter climate as we do here, and in fact averages the same 44 (6.6c) degrees as an overnight low in January. Yet in the month of January 2014 recorded low temps of 39, 37, 25, 33, 39, 37, 37, 36, and 35 (a total of 9 sub-40 degree nights, including a sub-30 degree night). So, the same 44 degree average low, but more susceptible to real cold. It should be noted, however, that it did have two 60+ degree overnight lows in that same January, more than coastal Southern California had from November to mid-April. So, it also more likely to have pleasant nights.
8. During the sample 12 months, there were 117 days with high temperatures in the 70’s (70-79 degrees, or 21-26c)) and 145 days with high temperatures in the 80’s (80-89 degrees, or 26-31c), resulting in a total of 262 total days in the 70s or 80s, for a rate of 71% of days where the high temperature would fall in that warm/hot, but without being too hot zone (at least without the humidity). You throw in an additional 54 days where it was 90+ degrees (46 in the 90s and 8 in the 100s) (32c+) and you get 316 days were the high temperature for the day was above 70 degrees (21c), or 86% of days. It still lags behind areas of Florida (especially on a normal year) and certainly the tropics like Hawaii, but that is pretty good for someone wanting to get away from cool weather.
9. As stated above, there were 54 days where the high temperature was 90+ degrees (32c+). Broken down by month, it is as follows:
• December 2013: 0 days
• January 2014: 1 day
• February: 0 days
• March: 1 day
• April: 5 days
• May: 8 days
• June: 0 days
• July: 9 days
• August: 5 days
• September: 14 days
• October: 6 days
I think the two most interesting parts of this are that there were more 90+ degree days in January (1) than in June (0) and that there were more 90+ degree days in September/October (20) than in June/July/August combined (14). Seems unique.
10. The two coldest daytime highs of the year were 57 degrees (13.8c), on both December 8 and December 19. These were the only two days out of the sample 12 months where the daytime high dropped below 60 degrees. Like what we saw with the overnight low, the daytime high did not stray far from the average daytime high. During the coldest part of the year (December 9 – December 28), the average high temperature is 67 degrees (19.4c). This means the coldest day of the year was only 10 degrees colder than the average high during the coldest segment of the year, and on only those two days did it stray more than 7 degrees.
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