Northern CA Summer 2024 SkiTracks and High Temps

tseeb

Well-known member
The world just saw the four hottest days in recorded history - The Washington Post -from last week

A wundeground station closed to my house had highs over 102 for 13 of the first 25 days in July. The rest of July was over 87 until 7/27 when high was 79. (The only other July day under 87 so far was 85 on 7/29). I’ve logged previous 6-day streaks over 100 from that weather station including late Sept into Oct 2010, mid-Aug 2020 and early Sept 2022, but they never included so many hot days after the 6 days of 100. On July 3, when nearby station got to 110, we stopped in 105* Auburn on our way to North San Juan, and our weather station went over 100 by 10:30. From North San Juan we left early to spend the 4th at 6200' elevation Packer Lake where it was cooler. My friend whose 20 acres outside North San Juan are on top of a hill at 2500' said he's used to the highs, but not used to 90 degrees or more late into the evening.

San Jose average temps used to be 81/55 in Summer months and are now 84/59 and 84/60 for July and August, respectively, according to weather.com. But those temps are taken ~10 miles N/NW of my neighborhood, much closer to SF Bay. Where my Mom lives, 6 miles away from me, close to the Coyote Creek, in Edenvale area of San Jose. and Morgan Hill, 8 miles S of there and a place where it gets hot a breeze blows down the valley that my part of San Jose (Evergreen), Almaden (another warm part of San Jose) and Los Gatos (another warm place where I grew up, closer to Santa Cruz with now $2.7M average home sale price) do not get.

On July 11, I left my neighborhood where it got 108 in the afternoon and went for bike ride in Santa Cruz where it was 73. I stopped to visit friend in Capitola and had to return to my vehicle to get sweatshirt before 5 PM. I spent night at another friend’s place in nearby Rio del Mar/Aptos. He had to go to work early while I took a longer ride into the Forest of Nisene Marks, a state park that includes the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and it was in the 60s when I finished before 11 AM due to shade from many big trees and fog. After bringing lunch to my Mom, I returned home where it was over 100. SkiTracks is only for the downhill - the uphill took a little longer.
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We have air conditioning, added during major remodel 16 years ago, but only ran it a few hours last Summer. Our house was built 50 years ago and will handle one 100 degree day without running air. During more usual Summer weather, house will get into the high 70s upstairs, then when it cools off we pull cooler air in and exhaust the warm air getting upstairs into low 70s before we go to bed. That does not work when temps are in the 80s until after 9 or when we have multiple days in a row over 100. Our most recent electricity bill was our highest ever in the Summer and our next one will be a little higher. I hope we don’t begin to need to regularly run air conditioning in the evening.

My family’s Tahoe cabin would not have been much of a respite from the heat as July highs were 88-90 from 7/5-12 and lows only got down to 50 two nights and 58 on one. The Lake had second highest water temperature ever recorded. Lake Tahoe sees second-highest surface temp in 25 years amid California heat wave - CBS Sacramento (cbsnews.com) Since it finally cooled down late last week, I went to Tahoe Thur-Mon to trim tree branches that Tahoe Fire said were too close to cabin. I hit traffic getting out of Bay Area even though I left home at 1:45 and barely had time to put groceries in fridge at cabin and get to music.
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I left sweatshirt at cabin and by 9 PM accepted blanket from friend who lives @6600' at So. Tahoe and runs air conditioner a lot. Band does great covers of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac (guitarist's Mother sings like Stevie Nicks), Santana and The Eagles. May go back to see them again in two weeks.
I got out for two bike rides, the first beginning and ending near where Heavenly Valley Creek crosses Pioneer Trail. I did not start SkiTracks until partway up the hill. It was windy and I saw high of 70.
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The next day I rode from cabin towards then under Heavenly’s gondola again not starting SkiTracks until I was pushing bike up trail steeper than I can comfortably ride in thin air above 6K. Gondola visible in middle of photo.
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I rode to Nevada Beach where cars were parked along entrance road all the way to US-50 and they were not letting anyone enter with Parking Full signs even though I saw many empty spaces on my ride.Sunday afternoon. Nevada Beach lakefront part of beach was a lot wider two years ago with lower Lake level.
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Later, I drove to just past Camp Richardson, parked along CA-89 and walked to Valhalla for free Boots Juice lawn concert.
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On Monday morning, I filled one more can I'd borrowed from a neighbor, cleaned cabin, then after garbage was picked up, I returned borrowed cans and refilled two of ours. This was before I put out can with garbage from borrowed neighbor's can and mine. Bear got into neighbor's can who put it out the night before. Nephew and I did most of our trimming on big tree behind chimney. They want all dead branches and any within 10-15' of structure removed.
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I left before 11 and returned home past Caples Lake and Kirkwood. Snow left of center is below The Wave cornice/run on Kirkwood's backside.
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Both mornings since I’ve been home, we’ve had fog in AM and lows in upper 50s, highs in the 80s and early cooling in evenings. I like and could get used to that, but it got to 92 at my house and closer to 93 at nearby wundeground station and is supposed to be warm through Sat. Still cool inside.
 
SkiTracks is only for the downhill - the uphill took a little longer.

I use SkiTracks as well for hiking.

We have air conditioning, added during major remodel 16 years ago, but only ran it a few hours last Summer. Our house was built 50 years ago and will handle one 100 degree day without running air. During more usual Summer weather, house will get into the high 70s upstairs, then when it cools off we pull cooler air in and exhaust the warm air getting upstairs into low 70s before we go to bed. That does not work when temps are in the 80s until after 9 or when we have multiple days in a row over 100. Our most recent electricity bill was our highest ever in the Summer and our next one will be a little higher. I hope we don’t begin to need to regularly run air conditioning in the evening.

I have never owned a house, condo, or apartment on the West Coast (Seattle and SF) with air conditioning. Even in Boston, I had window units. Basically, central AC has never existed for me.

My exception is my rental property in South Florida, where I love to experiment with an Alexa-Nest system requesting 1F tweaks.

The primary Summer expense in San Francisco is electric heat in July, August, or September due to fog and temperatures that never get out of the 50s.

I will occasionally drive to "Summer" by going out to Mt. Diablo (Danville), Mt. Tamalpais (Marin), and Wine Country (Napa, Sonoma).
 
SoCal does not seem out of the ordinary this summer so far. When we left for Africa June 6 our pool was still marginal for swimming at 72. I know we missed some heat in early July. We minimize A/C by opening windows at night and closing during the day as lows here are usually in mid-60's. The downstairs A/C is rarely needed, and we can get away without the upstairs most of the time if temps stay below 90. We recently had 8 days over 90 where we ran the upstairs A/C 3-5 hours/day.

We have a local microclimate half a block from the Verdugo Mountains where we get a breeze blowing front to back of our house starting ~5PM most summer days. Liz' Florida house has to run A/C 24/7 for probably 8 months a year. From Tseeb's comments it seems that the Santa Cruz mountains cut off marine influence from San Jose most of the time.
 
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Was pretty typical summer weather until July in Colo. July has been mostly very hot and dry. Thus the very recent fires along the front range. Horrid levels of smoke in Denver metro today after moderate yesterday.

A/C is a must in Colo front range for about 3.5 months in the summer. Not needed at all really in the mtns though. While it can get pretty warm up in the high country, it always cools off pretty quickly in the evenings. Even in Denver most of the time temps fall back to low 60's overnight, but it's not until the wee hours of the am that it's cool enough you'd be able to switch over to open windows. So A/C runs esp from late am in the morning all the way till very early am overnight during hot stretches.

it seems that the Santa Cruz mountains cut off marine influence from San Jose most of the time.
Not that I've ever lived there, but I did work for a company with multiple sites in that region on both sides of the coastal range and yes San Jose area is hot and dry most of the time (been a long time since I thought about all my frequent travel to that area from the early 00's).
 
it always cools off pretty quickly in the evenings
This is the key determinant of A/C vs. open windows. It's quite rare for the open windows not to work effectively at my house once the sun goes down. But in flatter areas of SoCal not that far away, especially if you don't have shade trees, you need A/C much farther into the evening. And farther into the San Fernando Valley, the Santa Monica Mountains block the marine influence, raising both day and night temperatures.
 
Ceiling fans are widely used here in Queensland as an efficient relief from the heat and humidity. Are they common in the warmer parts of the US? I can’t recall seeing them in hotels or Kylie’s aunt’s place.
 
From Tseeb's comments it seems that the Santa Cruz mountains cut off marine influence from San Jose most of the time.
I've seen the marine layer deep enough to go over nearly 3500' Mt Umunhum and it can get through San Jose off SF Bay but has not lately. We've had fog blocking the early morning sun the last three days. Fog seems to be coming up from the South, off Monterey Bay, getting into valley to the East then spilling over 2000' ridge into my part of San Jose.

There are many microclimates in the Bay Area including these 8 miles apart with 33 degree temp difference on July 3. Even San Jose has Alviso on SF Bay (and below sea level due to overpumping of groundwater) so it's much cooler. But as I said before the breeze has a hard time getting into Evergreen, Almaden and Los Gatos so they heat up more and may lose heat slowly. Low temps the last 7 nights of July at weather station near to me have been 58, 56, 58, 56, 58, 56, 57 and 61. The first morning of August was 60 and upstairs at our house got down to 71 without running air.

We have a ceiling fan in our bedroom, but it's noisier than we'd like it to be. I also picked up two more that a neighbor was disposing of but have not installed them. Our downstairs (we are in a tri/split/level) stays cooler so that is where we watch TV on hot summer nights, and I sometimes sleep until it cools off.

I meant to include a photo of some of the Powerline trail I rode on Sat. I think bridge and all the tree clearing may be new.
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Ceiling fans are widely used here in Queensland as an efficient relief from the heat and humidity.
We have them in our bedroom and over the kitchen table. The one in the bedroom makes sleeping in the upper 70's comfortable.

Judging by our Florida experience, I doubt ceiling fans would be adequate in Queensland December-March.
 
Judging by our Florida experience, I doubt ceiling fans would be adequate in Queensland December-March.
You’re correct as far as modern standards are concerned. The vast majority of households didn’t have air conditioning here in Queensland until the 1980/90s. Ceiling fans were the weapon of choice.
We use our ducted air approximately 30 nights per year - always between December and mid March. We cool the house down with the air con then turn it off and let the fans do the work.
I hate the feeling of waking at 5am in air conditioning then going outside to the ‘punch in the face’ humidity.
 
You’re correct as far as modern standards are concerned. The vast majority of households didn’t have air conditioning here in Queensland until the 1980/90s. Ceiling fans were the weapon of choice.
We use our ducted air approximately 30 nights per year - always between December and mid March. We cool the house down with the air con then turn it off and let the fans do the work.
I hate the feeling of waking at 5am in air conditioning then going outside to the ‘punch in the face’ humidity.
it was 35C here today with 21C dew point...in other words steam bath..
we have a full central air and a ductless system for the downstairs
 
it was 35C here today with 21C dew point...in other words steam bath..
we have a full central air and a ductless system for the downstairs
I’m sorry to hear that.
I can put you up for a few weeks if you can get a flight. Superb weather here at the moment. Cooler than average overnight at 44 degrees and it’ll get to 71 this afternoon. It hasn’t rained in 3 weeks and if averages are anything to go by won’t rain until October.
In my opinion it’s easily the best time of year in Brisbane.
 
No more 100+ temps since 7/24. Yesterday the nearby weather station got to 90 about 5 PM, then dropped to 80 before 7:30. We went to nearby free concert and had at least 30 minutes of sprinkles that caused us to leave before it was over (and we were out of food and drink). Very unusual to get precipitation here in Summer. At least there was no lightning to go with the high (for CA) humidity and THE clouds made for a great sunset. That is Mt Tamalpais, 60 miles away on the other side of SF Bay, circled in lower right of 2nd photo, taken from our upper rear deck.
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Ceiling fans are widely used here in Queensland as an efficient relief from the heat and humidity. Are they common in the warmer parts of the US? I can’t recall seeing them in hotels or Kylie’s aunt’s place.
Very common in the more expensive houses or or those built after about 2000 in North Carolina. My husband bought our house in 1985, with no ceiling fans. He installed ceiling fans in all the bedrooms and the high ceiling living room. Also one in the kitchen that's big enough for the table for six we use all the time.

Ceiling fans are not common in motels. Perhaps in luxury hotels in some regions, but I don't stay in those.

The southeast is not having particularly unusual hot temps this summer. The storm systems that have generated dangerous winds, rain, and tornados from Texas are doing damage afterwards in the northeast, not the southeast. Vermont has had very bad flooding recently.
 
No more 100+ temps since 7/24. Yesterday the nearby weather station got to 90 about 5 PM, then dropped to 80 before 7:30. We went to nearby free concert and had at least 30 minutes of sprinkles that caused us to leave before it was over (and we were out of food and drink). Very unusual to get precipitation here in Summer. At least there was no lightning to go with the high (for CA) humidity and THE clouds made for a great sunset. That is Mt Tamalpais, 60 miles away on the other side of SF Bay, circled in lower right of 2nd photo, taken from our upper rear deck.
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Beautiful pics. How good is a sunset. Our winter sunsets here can be nice.
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Very common in the more expensive houses or or those built after about 2000 in North Carolina. My husband bought our house in 1985, with no ceiling fans. He installed ceiling fans in all the bedrooms and the high ceiling living room. Also one in the kitchen that's big enough for the table for six we use all the time.

Ceiling fans are not common in motels. Perhaps in luxury hotels in some regions, but I don't stay in those.

The southeast is not having particularly unusual hot temps this summer. The storm systems that have generated dangerous winds, rain, and tornados from Texas are doing damage afterwards in the northeast, not the southeast. Vermont has had very bad flooding recently.
Ceiling fans can be bought and installed for $250 per fan. Such cheap efficient cooling.
 
I changed the title of thread from July to Summer and added High as my suffering through high temps started on Friday, June 21, the first full day of Summer, when we began a week at lake in Sierra foothills in RV with highs in the high 90s/low 1-0-s with friends with boats who have been going there for 40+ years. One day was lower 90s, but it was more humid, almost rained and clouds kept temps warmer overnight. We spent our days under shade canopy next to the water or in water. Lake was full so close to campsites. Full moon the first night and our campsite.
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August 6 was the first day since July 24 that nearby weather station (and mine) got to 100 (not over). My weather station had 52 in early morning so house got and stayed cool until late afternoon. I went to Santa Cruz, where weather.com says high was 81 and my local paper says 67!? I mountain biked through Pogonip to UCSC, my first time riding there since early July 2021. It's always been one of my favorite rides, especially if you go over the top behind UCSC and come down in Wilder Ranch State Park, on coast a few miles N of town. But trail has more rocks, roots and ruts, probably due to heavy use and winters. One of my favorite turns in redwoods that I've posted before here or elsewhere.
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I didn't start SkiTracks until I had to stop when I met another rider going downhill on a narrow hairpin I was going up. First half of trail is a flow trail that only gains a little altitude while second half is steeper. I walked a bit of it to avoid falling over rocks, etc. and the many downhill. riders.
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My wife’s aunt reports that SLC got to a record 103 degrees yesterday. That’s warm considering elevation!
 
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