The county of San Diego is located in the southwest corner of Southern
California. The prevailing winds are from the Pacific Ocean, with the
result that summers are cool, and winters are warm in comparison with other
places along the same latitude. In fact, many visitors flock to San
Diego in the winter to escape the cold, and in the summer to escape the heat!
Is there any other city in the U.S. that can make a similar claim?
Strong winds and gales associated with Pacific tropical storms are infrequent
due to the latitude. The seasonal rainfall is about 10 inches in the
city, but increases with elevation and distance from the coast. Most
of the precipitation (85%) falls in the winter, between Thanksgiving and
Easter.
As on the rest of the Pacific Coast, a dominant characteristic of spring
and summer is the nighttime and early morning cloudiness. Low clouds
frequently extend inland over the coastal valleys and foothills, but usually
dissipate in the mornings, and afternons are clear.
Considerable fog occurs along the coast, but decreases with distance inland.
The fall and winter months are usually the foggiest. Thunderstorms
are rare, averaging about three a year in the city.
One of the most unusual features of the climate is the wide variation of
temperature within short distances. If you're from back East or the
Midwest, you may find it hard to believe that you can drive a few miles and
have different weather, but this is indeed the case. This could be
a typical summer day: 75 degrees in Carlsbad, 85 in San Marcos, 95 in Escondido.
Or a typical winter night could be 50 degrees in Carlsbad, 40 degrees
in San Marcos, frost in Escondido. In the winter it could be raining
in Escondido, sunny at the beach. In June, it could be 90 degrees in
Escondido, but foggy and 60 degrees at the beach.
The good thing about all this is that you can usually drive a bit to get
whatever weather you want. Too hot? Go to the beach. Too
cold or foggy? Go for a day in the mountains. Tired of rain? Go
to the desert for the weekend. There's so many options!
So where's the ideal climate? This is a matter of opinion, and it depends
what you're looking for. If you have arthritis, the warmer,
drier air of the inland valleys might be better for you than
the cooler, more humid air at the ocean. If you like balmy
evenings having cookouts in the backyard, you might prefer
being inland a bit - at the beach you'd need a sweater most
evenings, even in the summer.
Many people take the middle ground - not right on the beach, but not too
far inland either, about 5-10 miles from the ocean is about right.
This strip of land boasts the highest number of days that are 72 degrees
than anywhere else in the planet. That's why we call the weather here
"nearly perfect"!
