Mediterranean Climate (Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento: how much, house, live in)

[Chimérique]

Here's a few more Classically Mediterranean climates:

Most are on or near the Mediterranean Sea:

CSa's:
Jerusalem, Israel
Beirut, Lebanon
Athens, Greece

I listed these CSa's earlier:
Tel Aviv, Israel; Los Angeles, Barcelona, Sacramento, Santorini, Greece; Lisbon, Portugal.....many more

These are NOT mediterranean climates but near them to name a few:
BSh's:
Fresno
Amman, Jordan
Damascus, Syria

Some classically Bone Bone Dry Desert Climates for contrast, (NOT mediterranean):
All BWh's:
Bagdad, Iraq
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Las Vegas, NV
Phoenix, AZ

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Both Sacramento and Los Angeles have classic Mediterranean Climates. (Koppen CSa)

San Diego is not a classic mediterranean climate.
The extreme southwest, around San Diego, has a subtropical semi-arid or steppe climate (Koppen BSh) as winters are drier there. The southeastern regions have a hot arid climate (Koppen BWh), similar to that of the Sahara Desert.

Fresno is not a classic mediterranean climate.
Fresno has a hot semi-arid climate (BSh in the Köppen climate classification), with cool, wet winters and very long, hot, dry summers.

I was just thinking about how Fresno and San Diego are too dry to fall into the Mediterranean climate on average, and one thing that's interesting is that while this is defined by the average annual rainfall totals, they are borderline climates that can sometimes experiences individual years that would qualify as Mediterranean, and they also border nearby Mediterranean climates. For example, in the SD region, inland areas are in fact labeled CSa but the drier coast is not. And a few coastal pockets are, but then those are not hot summer Mediterranean. From maps I've seen, this gives San Diego County a total of five different Koppen classifications when you also add in the mountains and deserts, more than any other county in the state!
And last rainfall season was more typically Mediterranean, which was a treat, with nearly 16 inches of rain at the official reporting station at the airport but nearly 30 inches in inland Escondido. Palomar Mountain received an incredible 69.26 inches, pretty much unheard of! So lots of localized variation here, where microclimates may not seem as severe as the Bay Area for example, but they actually straddle completely different climate classifications. Something unique to this corner of the state.

[Chimérique]

TS,
Interesting thanks for sharing. Yes I saw a map that showed areas about 30-40 miles east of SD with the CSa category.

Regarding land size, Southern California counties are huge in comparison to Sacramento Area and Bay Area counties. Perhaps if San Diego county and even the City of San Diego which also has a huge land size were broken down into several other smaller counties/cities more SoCal cities would fit into that Classically Mediterraanean (CSa) category. Does it really matter, I mean who cares that the name "Mediterranean" is not part of the San Diego or Fresno title.

FYI, Sacramento area foothills 25-35 miles east of downtown Sac received 45-60 inches last year during the wet season.

By the way, I tried to find a comparison city across the globe that fits San Diego - subtropical semi-arid or steppe climate (Koppen BSh), nothing popped up.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

TS,

FYI, Sacramento area foothills 25-35 miles east of downtown Sac received 45-60 inches last year during the wet season.

By the way, I tried to find a comparison city across the globe that fits San Diego - subtropical semi-arid or steppe climate (Koppen BSh), nothing popped up.

I'm not surprised by those foothill totals this past winter. It was gangbusters for areas with some elevation.

Interesting that you couldn't find any comparison cities with city of SD's climate. I might suspect coastal Morocco would be similar in terms of patterns and temperatures

[urbancuriosity]

Southern Portugal also comes to mind (The Algarve area, Faro, etc.)

[mxcolin]

Sacramento is very similar to places like Cordoba or Grenada, much more so than Madrid. I’ve spent considerable time in all of them and they are very similar. Still makes me laugh when people claim Sacramento has wet winters. I know it’s all relative but compared to almost anywhere else it does not, last year apart.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by mxcolin

Sacramento is very similar to places like Cordoba or Grenada, much more so than Madrid. I’ve spent considerable time in all of them and they are very similar. Still makes me laugh when people claim Sacramento has wet winters. I know it’s all relative but compared to almost anywhere else it does not, last year apart.

Laugh all you want, Sacramento has very wet winters in a normal winter.

Consider the annual average rainfall across the USA is around 35-40 inches but much of that is spread fairly evenly over the whole year. So that means 8.75 to 10 inches for the 3 months of winter for most places across the USA....most major metros across the USA.

Sacramento receives 95-99% of our annual average rain during the 3 months of winter, so that means we get near 18-20 inches of rain during the winter, that is a very wet winter compared to the rest of the USA. Even in lean-dry winters of say 11-15 inches Sacramento beats the national winter average.

[mxcolin]

Yeah, there's just no way that's true. I've been here for 7 years. There have been 2 ”almost wet” winters. The people making these claims are either quoting averages that are wayyyy out of date or haven't lived anywhere else. When people quote rainfall totals it means nothing to almost anyone, even if I accepted their validity. When someone says it's a wet winter in reference to anything, they mean, on an average day during that time, how often is rain falling from the sky? Let's assume winter is Dec/Jan/Feb for argument's sake. So far this ”winter” it has rained maybe 3 or 4 days. It won't rain for the next 7 or 8. Rainfall totals while scientific just aren't a good measure for anyone not making a pedantic point.

The question is, what does the average/mean day look like in Sacramento in ”winter”, well the average day is sunny, mild, and dry. That's just a fact. To suggest Sac has a ”very wet winter” is simply ludicrous. Again, most people who live here have either lived here all their lives or have also lived in SoCal, their frames of reference are extremely skewed. Get anyone else from 95% of the country or 95% of Western Europe to come here and say Sacramento has a ”very wet winter” and they would laugh in your face. In fact, suggesting we even have winter would be hilarious. And I speak as someone who has lived in numerous other places and continually laughs at very parochial comments in regards to weather.

[Chimérique]

That comment sounds emotional and subjective based on what one thinks it seems like.

Numbers, dates, and data are objective that can be measured and compared with other data.

You don't need to "assume" when winter is,

Winter is Dec 21 to March 19 every year. Now if you want to stretch the wet season into parts of Fall and Spring that's fine say, 3 weeks of Fall and 5 weeks in Spring.

California measures rainfall from from Oct 1 to Sept 30, almost all of that rain comes during the 3 months of winter.

Much of the rest of the nations winter (the other major metros) are definitely COLDER than Sacramento on average, but not wetter. Regarding sunny days in the winter, Sacramento likely has about the same as the national average, or slightly less, considering our wet days.

Sacramento is one of the sunniest locales in the nation for about 6-10 months out of the year, but not in the 3 months of winter, thats where the confusion may come about our winters.

[Damnitjanet]

At the time it was awarded the grant, Sacramento was either the number one or number two most likely regions in the country susceptible to a major flood. So the region got millions of dollars to expand the flood gates on the American River as well as to strengthen the levies on both the American River and Sacramento River as well as the ability to expand the ability to move flood water more rapidly to the Yolo bypass. New Orleans was the other place getting a bunch of federal money and depending on progress they made, that was shifting rankings around as infrastructure was built there.

It not that it rains real frequently every day in the winter but that Sacramento is prone to recurrent atmospheric rivers, that bring a large quantity of rain in very short period of time.

It's these recurrent atmospheric rivers that give us our wet winters in really short time frames and in the years they don't show we have a drought.

Southern California doesn't get Northern California rain. That's why it needs to take water from the Colorado River, the Owens River Valley and from pumping stations in the Sacramento River Delta as well as desalinization plants.