My father used to travel a lot for business, 100,000 miles a year or more. In his travels he would often encounter someone who had been to California, where I grew up, and said that they “didn’t like the weather”. This always amused him. If you don’t know why this is funny then your mental image of California probably comes from TV. If you picture palm tree lined streets, blue sunny days, warm temperatures and days at the beach then you are correct… and also wrong.

Variety

California has more mountains than most states in the United States. It includes both the highest and the lowest spot in the lower 48 states. Because of that, California has more than one climate. Did you know you can find all of these in California:

• California has 8 of the top 10 cities with the “least weather variety” – San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Eureka, Long Beach, Santa Maria, and San Luis Obispo. These are all coastal cities. (The other two top cities are in Hawaii).
• California has the hottest place in the United States and the second hottest in the world. Death Valley has had the second highest recorded temperature ever , 134°F (56.7°C) at Furnace Creek in 1913.
• California is one of the least likely states to be hit by lightening. Only Oregon and Washington are safer than California. I know what you are thinking, you would have thought Hollywood got hit by lightening more often.
• California has 3 of the countries driest cities Bishop (#3 with 5.61 inches of precipitation annually), Bakersfield (#4 with 5.72 inches), and Reno (no not the one in Nevada) (#7 with 7.49 inches).
• California has the 4th wettest city in the USA with 67.87 inches of precipitation at Blue Canyon. It is wetter than any city in Florida although Florida has 4 of the 10 wettest cities.
• Blue Canyon is also the snowiest city in the USA with 240.8 inches of snow annually. That is almost twice as much snow as the next closest U.S. city. Mount Shasta, California is the 6th snowiest city in the U.S. with 104.9 inches.
• California has 2 of the sunniest cities in the U.S. but they are not the coastal beach cities but instead Fresno (79%) and Sacramento (78%). Although California is the “sunshine” state, Arizona should take that honor with 4 of the top 6 sunniest cities.
• Perhaps you remember the 1972 hit song “It Never Rains in Southern California”? 6 of the 10 cities with the least rainy days in the U.S. are in Southern California: Bishop (#3 – 29 rainy days), Santa Barbara (#4 – 30 days), Long Beach (#5 – 32 days), Los Angeles (#6 – 35 days), Bakersfield (#9 – 37 days), San Diego (#10 – 42 days)
• Of course since it doesn’t rain, California also has half of the top 10 cities with the dirtiest air: #1 Los Angeles, #2 Bakersfield, #4 Visalia, #5 Fresno, #7 Hanford.
• California has 2 of the best cities in the U.S. for allergies (based on pollen counts) with #4 San Francisco and #9 Los Angeles but also one of the worst with #8 Sacramento.

Micro Climates

The bottom line is that the hills and mountains of California break the state into a number of smaller micro climates. You can easily find a spot that gets 50 inches of rain a year 20 minutes from one that gets 20 inches. In the Summer driving from San Francisco to Sacramento you can easily see the temperature rise 40 degrees in an hour and a half. Southern California is dry while the most northern part of the state is a rain forest.

If you don’t like the weather in California, just get in your car and drive and it will change. My home town has a number of ski shops but has not seen snow in my life time. People drive to winter when they want it. So before you come to California make sure to look at the weather map a little more closely to see if you need to bring an umbrella, beach shorts, a parka or all of the above.

* Thanks to Interesting United States Weather Facts