San Diego has weather. San Diego has seasons. Of course, the fact that I actually have to spell that out for people means that most folks think we don't. Even the people who live here will sometimes find themselves repeating the myths: every day is 72 and sunny; it never rains; and so on.
Now, I have to admit, obviously, that it does not rain a lot here; it's a semiarid Mediterranean climate, after all. And every day does have the potential to be 72 (or even 80) and sunny, which you can't say about most of the country.
But that doesn't mean that there aren't distinct, noticeable seasons. Right now, we're just hitting the peak of summer - temperatures in the low 80s, a little humid, and you can see the afternoon thunderclouds up in the mountains and deserts. This kind of weather is only possible now - between July and September. To me, that means it's a season.
Pretty soon, we'll be getting into Santa Ana season - hot, dry winds that come sweeping over the mountains to the coast. Each Santa Ana lasts about three or four days, and on the first day, the skies can be incredibly clear. Even the city lights seem to sparkle and twinkle at night. On the downside, they can act like bellows on wildfires, and a lot of people get headaches when they happen. Some people love Santa Anas, mainly because they make it warm in the fall and winter. "Gosh, it's 75 in December!", they'll say. To which I jauntily retort, "Ouch! My head aches!" Man, I hate Santa Anas.
Towards the end of Santa Ana season, you start getting into the Season of Actual Weather. From November through March, it really does rain here. Some years more than others (El Niño years are especially wet), but this is when it happens. And it cools down. A typical day in January is maybe 59-63 during the day and 46-51 at night. Not freezing, obviously, but not exactly shorts weather, either.
After the rain starts to peter out in late March, we get to probably the best time of year: real Frasier weather. April is about the nicest month we have. No rain, no clouds, warmer and longer days. Just nice.
Which is good, because the next two months bring the lousiest weather of the year: June Gloom. Starting in May, we get low clouds that come in off the ocean in the afternoon, and stay until 10 or 11 the next morning before burning off for a few hours (if they burn off at all). No rain or anything, but just cloudy, gloomy days. This is the only time of year when San Diego's weather is demonstrably worse than where you're from (wherever that is). (Although, to be honest, I kinda like the muffled softness of cloudy June days. But I'm weird that way.)
So that, in a nutshell, is what San Diego seasons look like. There's even a folksy rhyme that succinctly describes the climate in San Diego: "The spring comes in the summer, the summer comes in the fall; the fall comes in the winter. And the winter doesn't come at all."
Now, maybe the change from one to the next can be a little more subtle than in Minnesota. I mean, any idiot can look around at brilliantly colored trees and feel the cool wind blow and tell you that's it's fall. And winter clearly slaps you in the face and yells (icily), "Hey - it's winter!! I can freeze off your nose in ten minutes if you don't believe me!" But it takes a refined, sophisticated atmospheric sensibility to get plopped down in 72 and sunny and be able to tell whether it's July or November.
And to all those folks who come out here and say stuff like, "Oh, I miss thunderstorms! I miss snow! I miss the leaves changing colors! How I miss all these seasonal manifestations that I grew accustomed to in my former place of residence! Oh!", all I can say is, hey, I like them, too. Snow is neat. Nothing wrong with some snow. There's also nothing wrong with no snow, however.
Anyhow, I'm glad that I've dispelled, once and for all, the notion that San Diego's weather is boring. It's not in the least like watching Frasier every day. It's like watching Frasier maybe 150 days a year. And let's be honest: who among us doesn't already do that? I mean, it's syndicated.
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Hm, interesting points. If I may proffer a rebuttal: San Diego weather is like watching "Frasier" every day. Conversely, Minnesota weather is like watching "Frasier" occasionally, but "Jonas Brothers Do Their Taxes - Live!" on other days. In addition, there is a beach in San Diego in which the children and seals fight over dominance. Children, because of their physical disadvantages, are allowed to use weapons. But for legal reasons, they only get toy weapons: Supersoakers, etc. Unfortunately, the seals enjoy being sprayed by the Supersoakers, and they clap their little fins and bark, and the kids laugh, and then the kids and the seals start dancing and laughing together while a massive rainbow fills the sky and unicorns fly by on streams of sparkles. So it's a really shitty fight.
As a new resident in Northern California, I can say that there are definitely seasons here. The summer is really hot and dry during the day, chilly in the evening. The winter is less hot, and wet during the day, chilly in the evening. I don't find the seasons particularly dramatic, but I am constantly amazed at how dramatic Californians find the weather. During the winter they bundle up in their REI jackets and complain constantly about how cold it is. Then during the summer they are all, "wow! what a great day", while I'm thinking that it felt exactly the same as all the other days. Maybe I have to be here a while longer to really appreciate all the subtleties (that, and go outside more than twice a day).
Another weird thing about Northern California (which may be true down in San Diego, too. I assume it is due to dry weather. I don't really know), is that the dramatic differences in weather seem to occur over a 24-hour period rather than over a 365-day period. It can be 90 degrees during the day and then it gets down to 60 at night. Also, the weather is so dramatically different in different parts of the bay area. That's different than the midwest. I don't really have a point.
Observations can be points, Emily.
My brilliant observation/point: San Diego's kind of like the Bay Area, with a short drive giving you a huge temperature difference, especially during June Gloom. It can be 65 and cloudy at the coast, 75 and sunny five miles inland, and 90 degrees another ten miles inland.
Winter can be equally dramatic if you take the whole county into account. One year (I think in February) I drove Ed from the beach, where it was cool, but nice and 62 or so, less than two hours out to the desert, where it was probably 80 degrees, and then on the way back we stopped in the mountains, where there was two feet of snow on the side of the road.
By the way, Wikipedia has a decent entry on Santa Anas, including quotes from Raymond Chandler and Joan Didion about the effect our weather has on us Southern Californians as a people.
Ed--those child/seal fights are really an amazing sight to behold.
I agree with everything Joe said.
Emily--yeah, the temperature differences from daytime to nightime I guess could take some getting used to. I'm in Virginia now, where it'll be 90 during the day and 80 at night, whereas in California it'd be 80 during the day and 60 at night. That's one thing I miss and really noticed about the weather out here--it doesn't cool off at night.
When I got married in CA in the summer I had to tell my Virginia friends to bring a sweater b/c it gets chilly at night and they're like, but it's July. It can't be chilly. (And they were right; it was weirdly hot that week.)
On an unrelated note, looks like Google gave up posting ads next to the blog. That means they got so few clicks that we're not even worth the microscopic cost involved in throwing ads up. Sad, really.
I am still mulling over Ed's comments about the seals.
But anyway, if you want real weather drama, take a nice little summer vacation in Duluth, MN. "Up Over the Hill," a couple miles away from Lake Superior (and up a hill), it's often sunny and 90. When you live Up Over the Hill, as I did as a kid, the only thing you can think of on those sunny, 90-degree days is how great a dip in Lake Superior would be. So you all pile into the car, just wearing swimsuits, and you start driving down the big hill and when the lake comes into view, oooooohhhh, too bad, it's covered in fog and only 50.
Joe, I think that only people who live in places with no weather come up with goofy names like "June Gloom" to try to make themselves think they have weather.
Duluthians' names for seasons are Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall. Spring may not start until May, but it's still just plain Spring. June Gloom does sound pretty lame, though.
So Ed, did you ever get any money out of the ads? Did anyone ever click on any of them? I have to confess that I never did. Sorry - but I just wasn't interested in Smurf figurines or grants for women, or truck air horns (which I noticed a lot of ads for in the last week or so, for some reason).
And Amy, like I was saying, our seasonal transitions can be pretty vague, which is why we have to supplement spring, summer, etc. with June Gloom and Santa Anas. Not to mention seal pupping season. Stay away from the beaches for that one, folks!
Nah, don't think anyone ever got a cent from those ads, which is why Google has given up on us. Sigh. Oh, and the name's Chris, not Ed. I don't know why people keep making that mistake.
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