Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-10
OUR WINTER.
Its Peculiarities Described by Charles
Dudley Warner.


BILE for winter residence, and the in
clination of the same person varies with
his state of health. can only attempt
to give some idea of what is called the
minter months of Southern California,
to which my observations mainly apply.
The person in ordinary health will find
very little that is hostile to the orderly
organic processes. In order to appreci-
ate the winter climate of Southern Cali
fornia one should stay here the year
through, and select the days that suit
his idea of winter from any of the
months. From the fact that the great
est humidity is in the summer and the
least in the winter months, he may wear
an overcoat in July in temperature,
according to the thermometer, which in
January would render the overcoat un-
necessary. 1t is dampness that causes
both heat and cold to be most felt. The
lowest Temperatures in Southern Califor-
mia generally are caused only by the
extreme dryness of the air; in the long
nights of December and January there
is q more rapid and longer continued
radiation of heat. 1t must be dry and
clear night that will send the tempera-
ture down to 34o But the effect of the
sun upon this air is instantaneous, and
the cold morning is followed at once by
a warm forenoon the difference between
the average cold of January and the
average heat of July, measured by the
thermometer, is not great in the val
leya, foothills and on the coast. For the
four months Of July, August, September
and October there was scarcely shade
of difference at p. m. The striking
fact in all the records l have seen is that
the difference of temperature in the
DAYTIME between summer and winter
is very small the great difference being
from midnight to just before sunrise,
and this latter difference is greater in
land than on the coast. There are of
course frost and ice in the mountains,
but the frost that comes occasionally in
the low inland valleys is of very brief
duration in the morning hour, ,and rarely
continues long enough to have serious
effect upon vegetation.
In considering the matter of tempera
ture, the rule for vegetation and invalids
will not be the same. A spot in which
delicate flowers in Southern California
bloom the year round may be too cool
for MANY invalids. 1t must not be for
gotten that the general temperature
here is considerably lower than that to
which most eastern people are accus-
toned. They are used to living all
winter in overheated houses, and to
protracted heated terms rendered worse
by humidity in the summer. The dry,
low temperature OF the California win
ter, notwithstanding its perpetual sum
shine, may therefore seem to them want
ing in direct warmth. 1t may take a
year or to two acclimate them to this
more equable and more refreshing
temperature.
Neither on the coast nor in the foot
hills will the invalid find the climate of
the Riviera or of Tangier-nor the ira
montana wind of the former nor the alb
solutely genial but somewhat enervating
climate of the latter. But it must be
borne in mind that in this, our Mediter-
ranean, the seeker for health or pleasure
can find almost any climate Except the
very cold or the very hot) down to the
minutest subdivision. He may try the
dry marine climate of the coast or the
temperature OF the fruit lands and gar
dens from San Bernardino to Los An
geles, or he may climb to any altitude
that suits him in the Sierra Madre or
San Jacinto ranges. The difference may
be all important to him between valley
and mesa which is not hundred feet
higher; nay, between the slope OF a foot
hill with shifting of not more than
fifty feet elevation, the change may be
as marked for him as it is for the most
sensitive young fruit tree.
The rainy season in Southern Cali
fornia, which may open with shower
or two in October, but does not set in
till late in November or till December,
and is over in April, is not at all a period
of cloudy weather or continuous rainfall.
On the contrary, bright, warm days and
brilliant sunshine are the rule. The
rain is most likely to fall in the night.
There may be day of rain, or several
days that are overcast with distributed
rain, but the showers are soon over and
the sky clears. Yet winters vary greatly
in this respect, the rainfall being much
greater in some than in others. In 1890
there was rain beyond the average, and
even on the equable beach of Coronado
there were some weeks of weather that
from California point ofview were very
unpleasant. 1t was unpleasant by local
comparison, but it was not damp and
chilly, like protracted period of falling
weather on the Atlantic coast. The rain
comes with southerly wind, caused by
disturbance in the far north, and with
the resumption of the prevailing west
erly winds it suddenly ceases, the air
clears, and neither before nor after it is
the atmosphere "steamy" or enervating.
The average annual rainfall of the Pa
cifc coast diminishes by regular grada-
tion from point to point all the way from
Puget Sound to the Mexican boundary.
Usually the fog-bank will roll in during
the night, and disappear by 10 O'Clock in
the morning. There is no wet season
properly 50 called, and consequently few
days in the winter months when it is
not agreeable to be out OF doors; per-
haps no day when one cannot walk or
drive during some part of it. Yet as to
precipitation or temperature it is impos-
sible to strike any general average for
Southern California. In 1884 San
Diego had 25.77 inches of rain; Los An
geles, Is miles inland, had 1922. The
average rainfall for Los Angeles is 1884;
but in 1867 the total at San Diego was
only 3.75 and at Los Angeles only 5.28.
Yet elevation and distance from the
coast do not always determine the rain
fall. The yearly mean rainfall at Julien,
Il