The map above (click it to make it larger) shows SoCal temperatures just before 2:00 PM. Today is a perfect day to point out the tremendous temperature difference proximity to the Pacific can make. There’s a reason, besides the views, people want to live there.
Close to the surf, temperatures are in the upper 70°s and very low 80°s. Drive inland a few miles and you quickly hit the 90°s. Beyond the first small mountains, like in the San Fernando Valley, temperatures are in the triple digits. The 109° is from Woodland Hills in the valley.
It’s this quick change over a short distance that often confuses out-of-towners. Most people see the temperature from LAX, right at the water’s edge. A more realistic look is CQT, the weather station on the USC campus near Downtown L.A. It’s 81° right now at LAX and ten degrees warmer at USC!
Clouds over the desert are holding down temperatures there. Palm Springs is ‘only’ 99°.
It’s interesting to watch the local news to see the weather presentation. Ten years ago it was all L.A. Now the suburbs and exurbs get covered with their own extended forecasts. Depending on the station there are three, or four, or more extended forecast panels.
The numbers can be very different, especially when you throw in the inland mountains. At 7,000 feet ASL, Big Bear City Airport is reporting 54° and rain. It’s dropped 18° in 2.5 hours!
Here in Orange County We hardly used the air conditioner during August. September will be a different story. It’s been on round-the-clock and probably will remain so through the weekend.
It’s pre-fall back in Connecticut. Summer comes later here in the Southland.
Our local radio station has a morning show host who has a HUGE interest in all things weather and chats on air with their meteorologist during the forecasts. He was in San Diego last week for a funeral and said that he was driven nuts by the fact that none of the radio or TV weather forecasts used the term “dew point.” Has this been your experience where you are?
I haven’t seen dew points mentioned regularly. However, it would be meaningless to the viewers here unless properly explained. They have no reference point.
Like I have mentioned before–been there, done that.Only that was long before Irvine was a city. The temps in Glendale/Burbank would be in triple digits and we would freeze after driving an hour plus to get to the ocean. My friend who lives in LA–not far from the airport–complains when it gets up in the 80’s—and she was born and raised out here in the East.
We have been hearing about the heat out there during our “local” forcasts–so I know it must be getting up there. Now, here, they are expecting the cold front to come through during the night and we could dip into the High 30’s by nightime (Thurs)–my poor tomato plants that are finally just forming fruit!
I also agree with your take on syria—why do we have to cure the world, or try to. It will just put us higher on the hit list.It gets to me when they interview people of other nations who have lived here for the past 10-20 yrs–and they want us to go in and save their homeland. Funny–England is a melting pot too—you don’t see them asking their foreign national’s!
Unfortunately, I do know folks who have a son or daughter on active duty now–and I worry with them. I worry about the kids who have just gone in this year—most of them went in to get an education, and they are coming home crippled for life.
Have a Happy Roshashana (spelling??)