California’s Coast Stretch

Between latitudes 32° 15’ and 42° 22’ North, the state of California extends along the Pacific Ocean coastline. Approximately 75 percent of the Pacific’s shoreline is made up of it. Depending on distance from the ocean, latitude, and elevation, California’s climate varies greatly, ranging from subarctic to hot deserts.

The temperature in the valleys near the ocean and the ocean Range tends to stabilize over the course of the day and the seasons. Temperature patterns are continental and extend from the Sierra Nevada eastward with broad reading excursions. Over the desert zone as well as between the chains of the two mountains the temperature establishment ranges between continental and maritime models. Winters range from temperate to cold while the summers are hot. In the valleys and basins touching the coast, the climate has wide variations in distances that are short due to the effect of topography on marine air circulation (Hampton et al (2014). The Bay of San Francisco and the Basin of Los Angeles zone offer varieties of weather in miles that are few. In July the maximum average of the temperature in the Bay area is around sixty Four Fahrenheit with the average rising to 950 F in the valley of San Fernando that is fifteen miles towards the north.

Pressure in California’s Weather

A factor that dominates California’s weather is its pressure that is semi-permanent on the North of the Pacific. The center of the weight moves to the North during summer. As a result, the force holds tracks of storms to the North making California receive slight or no rain from this source at all. During the winter season the pressure moves to the south permitting centers of storms to swing across and into California. As a result, the State receives moderate precipitation that is widespread (Mooney & Zavaleta (2016). Some of the storms travel to the far South and spread moisture beyond the border of Mexico. Abundant moisture is carried by air streaming northeastward when circulation changes allow centers of storms to approach the coast of California from the south-west direction. The heavy rains that result produce flooding that is widespread during months of winter.

The Yearly Rainfall and Thunderstorm

Annually, rainfall amounts to more than fifty inches. Characteristic of the west side of the slope of the Coast Range, Cascades parts and the west side on the slope of Sierra Nevada on the North of Stockton. However parts of the Bay of San Francisco and the Bay of Monterey area receive precipitation that is about twenty inches, raindrops to fifteen inches in the parts of the valley of Sacramento and seven inches less in the San Joaquin Valley. The portion of the State that is to the northeast interiorly gets from fifteen to eighteen inches annually.

Thunderstorms; they may be experienced any time during the year. There seems to be no season that is definite for thunderstorms in the Central Valley and near the coast. Storms are more intense over the interior areas of the mountain and unusually severe occasionally at high and intermediate Sierra Nevada elevations. Observed thunderstorms average fifty to sixty days annually. Storms occur when moist, cold air moves in to disrupt a prolonged hot spell (Mooney & Zavaleta (2016).

Snowfall and Temperatures

Snowfall has been evidenced nearly in every part of California, however, snow is frequently received in the Sierra Nevada to the west at elevations of the Cascades and the Coast Range that are high. The snow that is in amounts that are moderate is reported almost every winter at heights that are as low as two thousand feet. Intensity and amount of snowfall rise with altitudes of about seven and eight thousand feet. Areas with latitudes above four thousand feet have snow remaining on the ground for longer periods every winter. Highways get closed for hours to three days by drifting and blowing snow (Hoerling et al (2017). At the altitude of four thousand feet or higher, east of the Sierra precipitation during winter is in snow form in amounts that are light.

Temperatures on the other hand vary’s from moderate to extremes of either cold or heat in areas within the State. The range in temperature from night to day on the coast as of winter to summer is unusually the same. Temperature ranges become wider with the increase of distance from the coast depending on the marine influence experienced in a given area. The lowest record of temperature was minus forty-five degrees Fahrenheit at the County of Nevada in nineteen thirty-seven in January the twentieth. At Boca, January’s minimum average is eight degrees Fahrenheit, Greenland at an altitude of one hundred and sixty-eight feet below the level of the sea has experienced a maximum average temperature of one hundred and thirty-four degrees Fahrenheit, indicating the highest temperature reading that has been observed in the United States (Hoerling et al (2017). In this area, temperatures are restfully chilly during the winter but are insistently high during summer.

Tornadoes and Winds

Tornadoes; reports of tornadoes have been made in California with an occurrence, of once or twice in a year. The severity of the storms is less, but in many cases, they cause damage to buildings that are light.

Winds; the state of California is in the zone that has westerlies that prevail, on the east of the northeast of the Pacific area that has the pressure that is semi-permanently high. During the year free air above the State flows from the northwest or the west mostly. The chains of mountains are responsible for the deflection of winds, but for the coast that is immediate, the direction of the wind is a product of the local terrain (Edwards et al (2014).

Surf and winds; with a lot of water to the west side of California, the wind that flows over miles allows the buildup of surf and seas throughout the year. They result in conditions that are good for surfing in most of the beaches along the California coast.

Relative Humidity

Relative humidity; humidity along the coast is moderate to high during the year. Humidity is low during the summer and high during the winter. Humidity decreases with increase in the distance from the ocean since the maritime air that is cool and humid come from the sea. Humidity also drops where there are barriers because they prevent the flow of marine air freely. The Colorado and Mojave experience humidities that are low with summer’s temperatures that are high.

Floods

Floods; precipitation that is heavy is the reason for most of the flooding in the Southern California. The watersheds that are steep as well as the streams that are short empty into lowlands which are densely populated causing effects that are severe. Flooding is experienced in the slopes in the west of the coastal ranges that are in the northern and central parts of California (Dirmeyer et al (2016).

Winter and Summer Seasons

California’s climate is charming and cool for most of the year. Winters are mellow with low dampness, but the summers are sweltering. The shorelines of San Diego and Los Angeles are kept cool in the summer by then breezes that flow seawards; the breezes are also responsible for the hotness during winter (Mooney & Zavaleta (2016). The climate is mostly dry and warm during all the seasons and daylight in three hundred and fifty four days. Desirable temperatures are created by the sea throughout the State resulting cooler summers and winters that are warm.

Reference List

Luo, L., Apps, D., Arcand, S., Xu, H., Pan, M., & Hoerling, M. (2017). Contribution of temperature and precipitation anomalies to the California drought during 2012–2015. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(7), 3184-3192.

Mooney, H., & Zavaleta, E. (2016). Ecosystems of California. Univ of California Press.

Monteverdi, J. P., Edwards, R., & Stumpf, G. J. (2014). An Analysis of the 7 July 2004 Rockwell Pass, California, Tornado: Highest-Elevation Tornado Documented in the United States. Monthly Weather Review, 142(11), 3925-3943.

Hapke, C. J., Adams, P. N., Allan, J., Ashton, A., Griggs, G. B., Hampton, M. A., ... & Young, A. P. (2014). The rock coast of the USA. Geological Society, London, Memoirs, 40(1), 137-154.

Wei, J., Jin, Q., Yang, Z. L., & Dirmeyer, P. A. (2016). Role of ocean evaporation in California droughts and floods. Geophysical Research Letters, 43(12), 6554-6562.