Microclimates - Sudden climatic shifts over just a few miles
Microclimates - dramatic shifts in temperature, rainfall or both over just a few kilometers or miles. How are these sudden shifts possible. In this video I look at the five basic types of microclimates, with a particular focus on how closeness to the ocean can impact.
🕐CHAPTERS🕖
👉0:00 Introduction and Titles
👉2:17 Definition
👉2:43 Five Basic Causes
👉3:00 Plant Cover
👉3:53 Built Environment
👉4:22 Slope Direction
👉6:02 Proximity to Ocean
👉6:44 Frost Free Oceanic Climate
👉7:53 Trade Wind Island
👉9:25 Cold Ocean Meets Hot Land
👉12:05 Outro
The five basic causes of Microclimates are plant cover (cooling within forests), built environment (urban heat islands), whether a slope faces north or south, altitude changes, and the proximity of ocean water.
The last of these has the most interesting effects, and I break this down further into frost-free Oceanic climates that enable the growth of subtropical and tropical plant species such as palms, in places like England and Scotland, specifically the Scilly Isles, Torquay and Plockton.
The second oceanic effect occurs in subtropical and tropical islands that are subject to trade winds, and here we find that one side of the island can be lush while the other is scrub or desert. I take a detailed look at windward and leeward slopes in Hawaii and Gran Canaria of the Canary Islands.
The last oceanic effect occurs when we have a hot coastal area next to cold ocean, as occurs in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans, with California having the most well-known effects. I look in detail at how this affects the 30 million residents of the San Francisco Bay and Greater Los Angeles areas.
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Do you live in a microclimate? Or have experienced one while travelling? Let us know the details! Details on temperatures, clouds, rain differences over just a few miles, please!
I live in a cfa climate (humid subtropical), and it's pretty uniform going from florida to southern ohio but a good example would be the Appalachian mountains as the mountain range is more prominent and has larger elevation changes than the surrounding terrain. Microclimates would be possible here because of the adiabatic lapse rate and how temperature decreases with elevation. I found it interesting and fun how as I drove up a mountain and gained hundreds of feet in elevation, the temperature went from your typical 90-100 degree temperatures to 80 or even 70 degrees, which put the climate closer to an Oceanic climate or (Cfb). However most of the land is in the lower elevations where temperatures are higher, the oceanic climate is not a large climate at all, especially compared to the more dominant Cfa climate. The mountains can definitely have different (though smaller) climates due to the different conditions and temperatures because of the changing air pressure therefore temperature. The only other place an oceanic climate can be found is in the Pacific Northwest going up the coast to Alaska.
I visited Riverside, California, and noticed when I went on a morning walk, it was very cold. When I drove to Moreno Valley, it was significantly warmer.
I live close to Colmar, France, which is known for its very dry microclimate (2nd driest city in France) and really sunny weather. The Vosges moutains to the West shelter Colmar from the humidity-charged Atlantic winds, and the valley lying behind these mountains (Plaine d'Alsace) benefits from a very dry and sunny version of the semi-continent climate that spans across most of central europe. Winters are still quite cold but summers are basically mediteranneans !
Yeah, you see the same thing in Croatia. The coast has a Mediterranean/humid subtropical climate (7 degrees in the winter and 24 in the summer), while the continental part which is separated by mountains has an oceanic/humid continental climate (1 degree in the winter and 21 in the summer). The change of scenery (as well as architecture) can be very abrupt, you can go from a green and rainy landscape that looks like Austria to a dry and sunny landscape which looks like southern France in only a few miles.
No. But you should mAke a video about the uniqueness of the Savannah climate and is it really the same as the tropical say Hawaii, as I grew up on the Philippines but out dry season don’t mean the leaves drop. And the unique climate of oceanic but like autumn year round, what do their natural flora look like? What is their native fruits and plants? And Ofcourse the hot semi arid with cactuses like Arizona?? And cold dessert should be further known. And lastly should the clinate of NYC and D.C and Nashville really subtropical? Should it be given a different climate type? Just some tips
Having lived in Oakland for a few years, and it’s honestly incredible how much the climate shifts over the hills. The inland side is so much hotter and drier than the oceanic side.
And one I personally experienced too, but only as a visitor
@@Geodiode As an aside, as someone who's been a viewer since your subscriber count was in the triple digits, it's amazing to see how much this channel has grown. Great work.
Thanks Will. Happy to hear you've been here since the beginning. Did you find me through my reddit posts in the early days?
Yes. The Bay is 14 degrees while central valley 30.
@@Geodiode I lived in the area long enough to recognize the clear difference. San Francisco has a cool but frost-free climate in which palm trees flourish. San Francisco has a reputation for chilliness, but its vegetation is subtropical. San Francisco is clearly Csb, but if it were to dry out it would easily fit BSh or BWh conditions even if the temperatures are nowhere near as hot as those of Phoenix or Las Vegas. The Hayward Hills are usually the end of the coastal influence, and even if there is adequate rain, a place like Concord beyond those hills is Csa. Tracy is hot steppe (BSH). Climate in the Salt Lake City, Utah area is remarkable. Still in the zone of winter rainfall but summer drought, it has a range of climates in a small area. West of Great Salt Lake one finds the salt flats (BWk). summers are hotter and winters colder than in coastal California, in part due to higher altitude. The Bonneville Salt Flats still lie in the rainshadow of California's Coast range. The dry westerlies pick up moisture from the Great Salt Lake and deposit enough on Salt Lake City to make it Csa or Dsa (depending on where one puts the C-D line). Mountains that force the uplift get heavy snow, and altitude makes all seasons chillier and winters longer, so Csa and Dsa climates grade into Dsb and Dsb or Dfb climates (winters are longer) and even into ET climates at high altitudes. Denver is mostly atitudinal effects with Denver itself on the borderline of Cfa and Dfa (where does one draw the line for the January isotherm?) and BSk At higher altitudes one finds Dfb, Dfc, and even ET climates nearby. As an observation, I have noticed that the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia is much drier than areas in eastern Virginia or the mountains of West Virginia. Although no part of the Shenandoah Valley is quite steppe , it is dry enough to be a grain-growing area critical in the American Civil War, when it was the Breadbasket of the Confederacy, Easterrn Virginia is heavily forested.
During winter of 2022 I went from Jericho to Tel Aviv, passing Jerusalem on my way- a total of 1.5 hours. I literally went from a dry desert to snowy white Jerusalem and then to pouring rain in Tel Aviv, all in a matter of 40 minutes in between each one. Truly amazing
That was a pretty exceptional day. Great to experience though.
Awesome trip! I was thinking about how the climate changes over those mountains too! Green, windy moist coastline, then dry dusty desert on the other side of a small mountain range
As alluded to in the video, San Diego County experiences all 5 aspects of microclimate. On a winter's day, you can be standing in the snow while in the mountains, look to the east and see desert below sea level, look to the west and see the beach. It is part of why we have such high biodiversity. Great video!
First time I drove to California I experienced this. Imperial County, bright sun, then climb into the mountains, almost a white out with clouds, and then down into the coastal strip. It just happened to be storm passing through at that time.
When I travelled to India during the monsoon of 2013, I noticed a quick, almost sudden change in vegetation as I crossed the western ghats. On the western side we have lush forests with extreme monsoon rain and fog and on the other side a much drier and more sunny landscape. It's not technically a microclimate but it's a quick transition.
Yes, they are pretty steep hills so you get a lot of orographic lift that produces so much rain, and then on the other side, much less.
This is the exact reason I love California. I live in Sacramento and the bay is 80 miles away. San Jose and San Francisco’s climate is drastically different from here, and they are only 35 or so miles from each other and their climates are drastically different too! Gotta love NorCal
Yes, I have experienced the crazy heat of Sacramento, and then the much cooler Bay in the same day. You'd have to be asleep to not be aware of it.
The San Francisco Bay Area is *NOTORIOUSLY* hard to forecast weather because at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, you get only 52° F. and foggy and in nearby Livermore, you get 92-95° F. and sunny simultaneously! The apocryphal phrase "The coldest I experienced was summer in San Francisco" really is true.
While working on a boat in Antioch a few weeks ago it was 103f...so we hopped on the BART and headed to the city and it was freezing and we were underdressed. I was born in San Jose...so I know all about this, but even still it gets me. Fog blowing at street level...felt like a mountain.
Visited San Francisco a few years ago during August and ate outside by the fishing district; had to run across the street and buy a hoodie since it was so windy and cold. Can’t say I expected to have to do that 😂
@@thasnipa597 A hundred guys across the street feed their kids selling those sweatshirts...lol...as a kid they would fill the front closet in our house from this happening. My mom would give them to neighbor kids...lol.
Northwest flow or the southern surge through the Carquenez Strait. It's all about the cloud deck thickness. I've seen fog make its way all the way up to redding. Very rare. The inversions are extreme at times.
Sounds awfully similar to the climate we have on the mountain slopes on the western part of Mexico City. It’s currently summer but it rarely gets past 68 F during the day and the temperature goes down to below 50 F at night, with daily evening showers and without AC or heating obviously. Kinda makes me miss the pool summer days back when I lived in North Texas. Such a weird climate we have here. 😅
Gunnison, Colorado is notoriously cold, as it's in a valley of sorts. I remember driving through Gunnison once and the air temperature was -17 deg F. After going over Monarch Pass and dropping into Salida, the air temperature was +42 deg F. The distance from Gunnison to Salida is 65 miles, but the temperature change happened over a ~40 mile distance. The two towns are at roughly the same elevation.
Bay Area resident here! I live in the East Bay on the other side of the Coastal Range from SF. I drive through the Caldecott Tunnel to get from my side of the Berkeley Hills to the Oakland/SF side and the change from one side of the tunnel to the other can be drastic. It can be sunny and 80F on the east side of the tunnel and then you go through which takes about 30 seconds and pop out to fog and 65F on the other side of the tunnel. The Bay Area microclimate phenomenon is one of my favorite things to show my friends and family when they visit. They can't believe it until they experience it. It can be foggy and never get to 60 degrees in SF while we're roasting with 95-100 degree temps just 15 miles away, and in the Central Valley it's even hotter.
Thanks for that excellent local perspective Anna! So now you can share the background to this amazing phenomenon with your friends in this video ;)
A much less known microclimate is the Puget Sound water-ways which stay cold even in summer and an incredible difference of temperature due to the depth of the body of water at over 900 feet. This leads to a heat-exchange process with the coastline around the deeper areas and many islands, inlets and bays leading to a very large impact on temperature, for example at this moment Seattle is at 78f which sits at a point where the Puget Sound is shallower and warmer comapred to just a few miles north at the town of Anacortes or the Island city of Port Townsend (A little bit of Europe in the USA) at 68f so a 10f difference.
That's what cold waters near to mountains will do!
As you briefly touched on in the video, San Diego weather programs show the forecast for 4 different microclimates: Coast, Inland, Mountain, and Desert. It gets hotter and drier as you go inland, and then it can snow in the mountains. It only takes about an hour and a half to experience them all.
Copying and pasting my reply to @valenfuture. I'm so glad I didn't miss out SD, otherwise both of you would have said "you forgot SD..." XD... "First time I drove to California I experienced this. Imperial County, bright sun, then climb into the mountains, almost a white out with clouds, and then down into the coastal strip. It just happened to be storm passing through at that time."
Hawaii has a lot of microclimates! Windward side is basically a rainforest and west side is so dry and hot. It's really cool to see! Some areas of Oahu where a valley cuts through the mountains, it let's rain pass through but a mile down the road hardly gets any rain!
I experienced a bit of a microclimate when I went trekking through the Himalayas. We started at the bottom, in a muggy, wet climate with thick forests and that varied from 65 F to 85 F in temperature. Travel only about 15 miles, and you were suddenly in a very dry, sunny and windy climate where there were rock fields and ice everywhere, with temperatures barely getting above 35 F. It was quite a trippy contrast, to go from tropical jungle to the Arctic in such a short distance.
The British Raj had their summer capital up in the mountains at Shimla, to escape the unbearable heat!
I grew up in LA and was endlessly fascinated by our daily 5-6 weather forecasts (LA/OC Metro, Beaches, Mountains, Inland Empire, High Desert +/- Low Desert) and I was always grateful I lived on the cool coast while the deserts baked in 100F+ heat, though I also got jealous when the mountains got snow. The mountains and canyons also create unique fire weather conditions. Must be fascinating to be a meteorologist (or location scout) in LA.
Very much so. I lived in SoCal, in various parts near and far from the coast and got to experience all!
@@Geodiode CBS 8 also has Microclimate forecasts for 8 days out for all months of the year
I've been waiting for a video about something like this, I don't really get much detail online from the drastic climates of two seemingly close areas like San Francisco and San Jose. Thanks for putting this up
This is very interesting. I live in the centre of southern Scotland - 300m altitude and quite far from the sea as UK standards go. We are surrounded by hills, and can occasionally get really still winter nights when temperatures reach -20 celsius - quite extreme for the UK, and completely unheard of anywhere near the coast. This winter, we had snow cover for almost the whole of January and february, yet barely 10km away snowcover melted within days of it falling. When I returned to university after Christmas break (extended due to covid) I left home at -10 celsius, and when we reached 100m altitude 25km down the road, it rose above freezing. When I got to university, which is nearer the coast and lower down, it was 5 celsius (albiet later in the day, but I doubt if my uni city sees -10 more than once a decade). I've seen the Plockton palm trees, and find it amazing how different the weather conditions can be over such small distances. I started watching your videos when I was about to finish high school, and now I am working on my dissertation (just waiting for QGIS to run some tasks - not procrastinating, I swear!) for my undergraduate degree (hence why I'm only watching this video 3 months late!). Microclimates are one of the many things that are introducing uncertainty to my studies, so whilst I find them cool now, in a few months I will most certainly be cursing them! Thanks for continuing to make such quality educational videos!
Hi from south of the border! ;) Very interesting phenomena going on there in your area (Tweedale? Galloway?) I'm wondering if you're in a bowl surrounded by hills that could be a Cold Air Pool, perhaps? Certainly sounds like you're shielded from any coastal influence. Plockton is on my bucket list. I'd heard about it decades ago, and refused to believe it until I saw a photo of the palm in front of what looked like crofter's cottage! Hope you do just great in your studies. Good luck!
That's a nice case of microclimates. Elevation always has such effects, but in a country as far north and as oceanic as Scotland, the influence of elevation is higher. Probably the same in Sitka, Alaska.
I live in San Diego County and the temperature variations during a drive through the county are astounding!
I agree, having also personally witnessed this as I first visited coming over the mountains on I-8, from bright sun to cloud then drizzle then rain!
@@Geodiode then you know exactly what I'm talking about!
Even more extreme, in the Los Angeles area, Santa Monica can be 70 degrees Fahrenheit while 10 miles away in Canoga Park it can be 100 degrees Fahrenheit at the exact same time
As a former resident of the Valley I can relate. The thing I find amusing is trying to explain this to relatives in other parts of the country. They think you’re exaggerating but you’re not.
Confirmed, and witnessed personally! We are not crazy or exaggerating!
Colorado has plenty on microclimates, most due to different altitudes and windward/leeward mountains. It’s pretty interesting to see when driving
Yes, and I understand freak weather events are quite common there, being right on the border of the Rockies and the prairie.
@@Geodiode yup, large temperature swings in the transition seasons are common. Weirdly, Last September it was 90°F (32°C) in Denver and less than 24 hours later it was snowing and around 0°C. Most cities here have different climate characteristics it seems, Denver is a cold desert while a few miles south Castle Rock is considered “oceanic”. An hour west is subarctic/tundra and even further west is considered Mediterranean.
Summers in Colorado are absolutely boiling.
I’m happy to see thoughtful integration of UHI affects in microclimates. Awesome work.
Thank you!
I live in a really weird micro climate area. I’m located in San Jose which may not itself have anything as iconic as the fog of nearby San Francisco, but I live on the apex of scrubland, empty hills, oak dotted hills, dry pines, and wetlands. Around 5 miles away are damp redwood forests.
Very true. I could have spent an hour going through all the different microclimates in CA. But this is what the comments section is for ;)
But if the marine layer fog rolls in, you can from nearly 100° F. in the summer to 70° F. in just a few days in San Jose. I used to live in that area and wow, that difference is very pronounced.
I live in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. It's so interesting to drive from here to West L.A. on the 405 with your arm out the window to register the temperature change! It was 104 F here today (mid-August) and only 85 F in Malibu, which of course, is on the coast. Earlier this summer the coast was completely cloudy and dreary, but drive ten minutes inland and the sun is out. This region is so interesting.
Yep personally experienced that!
Once upon a time, I visited southern New Mexico. Cloudcroft, to be exact. It was incredible that you could be up in the mountains in sub-freezing temperatures, then drive down to Alamogordo in twenty minutes, and it’s eighty degrees. Wild.
Thank you for another video with great production value!
Thanks! And thank you for your sub!
Interesting as always, thank you Sir!
Amazing video, I’ve learnt a lot in a fun and engaging way.
I used to live in Dammam, Saudi Arabia which is a coastal city. My school used to be near the coast and summer temperatures average 42C during the afternoon. I used to live 10km away from the coast and the temperature would average 47C and I could easily feel the difference when I get down from the bus. Also the urban heat island at the same city. Temperature at peak of summer won't drop below 38C for weeks at the heart of city whereas at the airport which is 30km east the temperature would drop below 30C even if day temperatures reach 50C. Dahran(located besides dammam) has the highest heat index ever recorded on planet earth and I was there at the time.
Those are eye-wateringly high temperatures! Anything over 35C is too hot for me! But it's interesting to learn that you can even get microclimates between hot, very hot and OVEN ;) Thanks for your sub, by the way.
I’ve heard there are pretty big differences in humidity between those areas. Isn’t the coast supposed to be deathly humid?
Amazing video, one great microclimate near me is Charleston SC. When you get there you feel like you’re in Florida
thanks - how does the city differ from the surrounding area? and any idea why?
Awesome!!! Will share for sure!!
The quality of these videos is top-notch. You should have like 400k subscribers!
thanks v much!
Living in Everett, Washington I've grown accustomed to this regions microclimate of the PNW.
I made a special video about your climate, first in this series
Detroit, Michigan gets much less snow than does Sandusky, Ohio across Lake Erie to the southeast. Lake-effect snows appear where cold winds blow moisture over an unfrozen lake water onto cold land. Any westerly or northerly wind can blow moist air that cools off and falls as snow during the winter. In Detroit, the moisture-enhanced winds come from the south and are usually warm for the winter. Detroit can get lake-effect rain at any time of the year. Snows there come from frontal storms as everywhere else during the winter.
Thanks for adding this!
Nothing like being in Vacaville, CA in the summer on a completely clear and windless 101-degree (38 Celsius) day wearing shorts and a T-shirt and 50 minutes later be in San Francisco wearing a sweatshirt with a hoodie over your head, pants on your legs, and mittens on your hands in very windy 59 degrees (15 Celsius) with a thick "Karl" the fog blanketing the Bay Area.
1) Awesome video and 2) Yes, British Columbia. Vancouver Island west coast (Oceanic) versus Vancouver Island South east coast Sub-mediterreanian) and alpine climates at altitude OR interior mainland like Kamloops (semi-arid) or Osoyoos (desert) or almost anywhere...just map out on Google "koppen classification British Columbia".
Yes, lots going on there due to the steep topography and proximity to ocean.
Once experienced 3 microclimates in a day in Switzerland/Italy. Morning up near a Glacier with 14°C (57°F), came down into the hot dry July valley where it was 32°C (90°F) and then drove through the Simplon Pass to Italy where it was slightly cooler at 29°C (85°F) but crucially much more humid at over 90% humidity. Felt like a jungle in comparison.
Great experience!
I remember as a kid talking to some friends of my parents who lived in the suburbs of LA. They were telling us that the previous Christmas Day they had been on the beach for a barbecue for lunch and in the afternoon they drove for, I think, half an hour or so and went skiing. I couldn’t understand how this could be but apparently it was true. Must be awesome to live somewhere with such variety.
I lived in the LA area and can confirm this, although it's actually about 90-120 minutes from the beaches to the nearest skiing at Lake Arrowhead.
In Oklahoma we have these mountains called the ouchitas and they have completely different ecosystems on each side.
Great video. This video hit close to home 🫶
Thanks!
I love your Climate videos!! So very interesting I'm a big fan!! I live in Dallas/Fort Worth, Cfa humid subtropical but as you know humid subtropical has a wide variety of weather too! Thank you for your educational videos
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the climate videos
this video is so well done
Last June I traveled from Xalapa (actually Coatepec) to Leon in Mexico.. a 7 hours trip on almost the same latitude with altitudes ranging 1400mosl to 2100mosl. I started with a green and dense broadleaf foggy forest, mainly populated by sweetgum and Sycamore trees (Cfa and Cfb), then i went through a pine and fir fortest (Cwb almost Cwc), then a Juniperus savanna (transitional biome) to a Joshua tree desert (BSk) in the middle, then i crossed a scrub-cacti semi desert (BSh) to a sclerophyllous oak forest (Cwb). Until here everything seemed so green, even the deserts where green and blooming, but all of a sudden it turned dryer, as I was crossing to a dry subtropical forest (Cwa) until I finally got into an African-like savannah open drygrass steppe with sparse umbrella-shape mesquite trees (BWh)... everything was so dry you could still see some ash dots all over from spring fires. In this trip I moved from eastern slope side of the continent to the western slope side but yet halfway to the western coast. by the way, the western-slope of Mexico was going through one of the hardest droughts in recent times. The sense of humidity, changed a lot, i changed from a sweater/umbrella climate down in 1400mosl to a cold climate at 2000mosl and finally to a burning hot climate at 1800mosl
What an incredible odyssey! I would love to experience something like that. Mexico really has an incredible diversity of biomes and landscapes.
@@Geodiode it's an awesome experience. You're welcome anytime u want.
I have done a very similar trip. You get to see tropical Savanah at central coasts of veracruz, then temperate rainforest in xalapa, pine forest with snowy winters in perote, cold deserts in puebla all in less than 2 ours with towns in all those regions!. It is possible to see ice cap all year around in the Orizaba peak.
Great as usual! 😍 I would love to experience these microclimates especially in the Canary Islands. Looks interesting! 🤔😊
Each one of the islands is so different from the other. You could really spend a month getting around them all.
I absolutely love your channel! I’m a geography and earth science professor in the US and only discovered your channel and I’m already using your videos in my classes. When people ask me why I live living in California, I tell them more than any other reason - the diversity in climates, ecosystems, and geology translates to countlessly diverse opportunities for outdoor recreation tourism and further personal education in my field. On an interesting side note, the two regions you started off the video with that highlight a climatic homogeneity over a vast area, Eastern Europe through Russia all the way to Central Asia as well as North Africa/Sahara through the Arabian peninsula through Iran all the way to Pakistan also correspond to some of the most geopolitically troubled regions in the planet. With regional authoritarian powers bordering fragile fragmented ethnically/religiously diverse “shatter belt” powder keg nations. There is a connection, albeit loose. The same factors that contribute to climatic homogeneity over vast areas, also make centuries of invasion and conquest easier leading to what seems like regions doomed to be forever geopolitically troubled.
Glad you finally found the channel. You can certainly share this content with your classes. I lived in California almost 10 years and I can certainly vouch for the incredible diversity of landscapes and biomes in that one state alone. Nailed it regarding invasions and similar climate zones. Also if you look at a map of the Roman Empire it is about 80% Csa Mediterranean. Only Gaul and Britain were significant parts outside the Mediterranean climate zones under their control.
I think my area is a good candidate for a microclimate. I live near the east-facing slope of a mountain chain in S.Italy that receives lots of warm, dry air in the summer. Both sides have a Csa (Mediterranean, hot-summer variant) climate, but my city gets higher temps and less rain because of the föhn effect. Today for example, we reached 42°C, while the west-facing slope "only" reached 35. We also get 700 mm of rain in a typical year, mostly concentrated in the fall, while they get at least 1000. It's crazy. I love climatology.
Very interesting to hear you get the Foehn effect even that far south. 42C is pretty unbearable!!
@@Geodiode tell me about it! We're just now coming out of a whole week of 38+ degree highs, easily the longest hot spell in the last five years or so. Mediterranean climates are supposed to be comfortable LOL
I lived in SF, a mile from the ocean on top of a sand dune. No A/C necessary. In fact, in my 11 years there we had one day at 90-deg. And not many more than that at 80. Cool and foggy all summer while my previous hometowns - SJ and Livermore - were 100. And warmer in the winter. I miss it!
Thanks for sharing!
you should make a video on why Argentina has grasslands in the temperate climate, unlike China and the US, which have forests
I covered this briefly in my Grasslands video in my Biomes series. Honestly it's a bit of a mystery to me, and when I looked into it I could not find anything definitive
I used to commute from San Francisco down the Peninsula to work. On the way home there would often be a shelf of fog hanging over the land… driving north I would pass instantly from warm and sunny to cold and overcast.
The two biggest I experienced that are not ocean microclimates are Alamogordo NM to Cloudcroft NM it is a 20 min drive it goes from a hot desert in Alamogordo to a wet cool mountain town that gets 36" of precip in Cloudcroft . Cloudcroft has very large conifer trees and an outdoor ice rink in the town! Number 2 is Reno to the Mt Rose Ski resort. That is a 30 min drive and the precip goes from 7 inches in Reno to 50+ Inches on the Western slope of Mt Rose!
Didn't know about that sweet spot in NM, however I have actually been to Reno and that ski resort in the winter, so I know that!
While not technically a 'micro climate', this sudden change in climate can be seen in South India near the Western Ghats. The windward side of the Ghats in Kerala is lush and green, while just a few kilometers on the leeward side of the Ghats, Tamil Nadu has arid blistering rain shadows. Scale any of the hills and the climate becomes cool and temperate. All in a day's journey. I suppose the maps kinda show this starkness with the green cover changes.
Actually, I would qualify that as a microclimate, coming under the category of Trade Wind Islands in my video, although obviously not an island, but same effect.
Great video. You should do one on the sky islands of the American Southwest, particularly the 4 corners states. Many very dramatic examples.
Thanks glad you liked it!
I was living in Vallejo, but I had a part time job in Yountville, and I was taking classes in San Francisco, but sometimes I would visit family in San Mateo. So, my commute would change frequently, and it was interesting to see how microclimates would change just from the fog alone and all the dips, especially whenever I drove through the Sonoma into the Petaluma gap. One side of the bay is 56°, and another could be 80° or even higher.
Good to hear of your local's experience here!
I’m from hawai’i, and you can drive from super wet forests on the east side to desert-like conditions on the west side. And on the higher parts of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa (at least in February) you can experience snow and see the tropical oceans at the same time
Nice to have that confirmed. I first read about this difference the sides of Hawai'ian Islands a very long time ago. That was the first time I understood the power of trade winds.
City of Bonito, state of Pernambuco, Brazil - It has tropical rainforest climate and semi-arid climate only a couple kms away due to altitude changes. I've seen in with my own eyes, it's so interesting. It was drizzling in the forest at one side and the semi-arid side was bone dry. In fact the forest is called literally "The rain forest" locally lol Another case is Chapada do Araripe between states of Pernambuco, Ceará, Piauí and Paraíba. It's in the middle of semi-arid region but due to higher altitudes it sustains big leaf forests that remain green through the year.
Fascinating, and to me, somewhat enigmatic that you have this anomalous semi-arid Caatinga in the middle of the tropical climates.
Sounds like Minecraft biomes
Fascinating. But the vegetation in Chapada do Araripe is still very Cerrado like...
@@lorrainegatanianhits8331 it is more or less like Cerrado vegetation, in fact some of it is labeled as "Cerradão" which is way denser than Cerrado. There are areas of Mata Atlantica in higher altitudes and Caatinga/Cerrado in lower altitudes.
In Switzerland there are three famous microclimates: La Brévine, the coldest permanently inhabited place in Switzerland lies in a cold air pool. It has experienced -42°C, whereas surrounding areas at similar altitudes only go down to about -25°C. The entire Rhône valley of the Canton of Valais. Although being located in the middle of the alps, which should in theory experience high rainfall due to orographic lift, like all other valleys around it, but doesn't. It receives around half the precipitation that surrounding valleys receive. Bauen, Canton of Uri, is a small village with a rather extra ordinarily mild microclimate. Citrus trees can grow there without winter protection, something which is unheard of for the ultraalpine part of Switzerland. Below the alps (infraalpine) this is common.
Typically Rhone middle valley in France between Lyon-Valence-Montélimar where you can find many coteaux, on the south and west side of the hills. If you pass Cevennes or Pilat mountain you get a very different climate there.
The Middle Rhine Valley (between Bingen and Koblenz) located above 50°N, is a mild, sunny wine-growing region. But just outside the valley in the Hunsrück hills, there is no wine and the climate is much harsher. The valley is protected by the hills, and the dark slate slopes absorb the heat while the river itself helps to moderate temperatures.
Good to know. I did wonder how the Germans were able to grow vines!
The tree shown for Plockton is the Ti Kouka or Cabbage Tree from here in NZ and whilst not a palm, it does look fairly tropical to people in the U.K. I've heard it grows quite far north in Norway in a certain fjord as well. It's funny and neat to me that people on basically the complete other side of the world see the same plant as me but call it a Torquay Palm or similar :)
Yes, that tree once was a reason for a heated debate with my friends as they believed there are palms in Scotland
@@ofacid3439 Definitely not a palm and not at all native to the U.K but they are a great NZ native. Worth growing if you can
@@ofacid3439 However in the Isles of Scilly I believe they grow the actual NZ Nikau Palm Tree
I used to live and work in San Francisco, and would pass through 3 or 4 very different types of weather on the way to work most mornings.
I lived in the coastal redwood forest near Santa Cruz. Going "over the hill" every day meant nice cool nights and warm sunny days every day.
I experienced this during my vacation in California. We flew into San Diego where highs were in the low 70s at most, meanwhile just across the mountains on our drive to Palm Springs was desert with highs in the 110s. I went from shivering on the beach in the beginning to melting in the desert at the end. Edit: Also experienced this in Arizona. In Sedona it was 95 degrees, get in the car for 40 mins to go to Flagstaff and you're surrounded by pine trees and temps in the low 80s. In winter theres feet of snow in Flagstaff, and hot and dry weather in Sedona
Yep, been there with a drive from OC to Palm Springs - the temp difference was crazy.
I experience this when I'm going to visit my grandmother on the coast, there the climate is subtropical relatively hot, humid and closed vegetation, just move away a few kilometers away from the climate begins to cool down, and when I return home (at 760 meters high) the climate becomes oceanic Cwb, and the vegetation becomes open and typical of temperate/subtropical regions, all within a radius of 55 km, i live in southeastern brazil
Fascinating - is that near Curitiba?
@@Geodiode No, State of São Paulo, but she lives in Santos (i think there is Af or Cfa), and i live in São Paulo City which is Cfb or Cwb, The Brazilian plateau influences the climate of the region :)
Wonderful video mate :)))
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'd love to hear more about what those micro-climates do, how they affect people, areas.
I live in Cracow in Poland. During mild winter it is often to see difference between Cracow and neighbor villages. Cracow is dark with no snow, but villages close to Cracow are fully covered in snow, very bright and white.
Thanks for that local report on the urban heat island effect
As an extreme some buildings in Londonwere built with shapes that concentrated light and effectively solar heat into a narrow zone of focus. At the hot point people found insufferable heat for themselves and heat damage to even cars.
I live in Daly City, California, essentially part of San Francisco, and my house is only one ridge behind the coast so it's 55 degrees and foggy during the Summer, but go just across the Peninsula and it's more like 65 degrees, and go across the Bay it's more like 75 degrees, and go behind a couple more hills it gets to the 80s, 90s, even triple digits!
What you described about what happens during winter and what happens about mountains was something that I have experience yet couldn't understand. Down hill during winter, or even summer, the streets and main thoroughfare are quite "warmer" and there is a bit of a fog that occurs just in between the slope of the hill especially around spring and autumn. The "hill" is steep yet, I won't call it a big mountain; it's significant enough to cause a bit of a temperature difference. The hill does form a ridge that goes eastwardly for a couple of miles; the main thoroughfare is appropriately named Hillside. Up hill where most of the houses are the temperature is cool or colder but comfortable, there is also more trees but I am not sure if that is the main influence. It can be bitter cold throughout the neighborhood regardless yet the coolness in winter is like a sweet kiss of cold and not bitter or biting cold compared to down hill.
Interesting, what location is this?
@@Geodiode It is in Queens, New York. I don't want to say where it is specifically; though it is flanked by the Grand Central Parkway on the north and Hillside Ave in the south. The Island of Long Island has many ridges that span from Brooklyn to Montauk. I don't know if others share my experience, however. Yet I've grew up and lived in many places within a ~6 to 7 mile (9~11 km) radius of that area from being on the hill/ridge, to the side of it, and at the bottom of it.
Hawaii mentioned 🔥
Topography and the presence of other water bodies are huge factors in microclimates, too. The microclimates here in the Bay Area are controlled by three factors: proximity to the ocean, proximity to the bay and the presence or absence of hills and mountains. Elevation and plant cover are not significant factors at all here, although the highest peaks, Mt. Diablo, Mt. Hamilton, Mt. Tamalpais, and a few others, might get dusted with snow, rather than rain in the coldest months.
Living in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, the inland vs coastal temperture difference is normal to me. Of course it's always cooler by the coast in the summer and sometimes a bit warmer in the winters. Plus, we also have elevational differences with the nearby San Bernandino mountains. I've definitely heard of San Francisco being in a microclimate, but never the Southern California cities. SD is also well known to be much milder than LA in terms of climate extremes.
Correct - yes SF is more famous, because of the fog etc., but LA definitely has them too, as I personally experienced living there.
The difference between Pueblo CO and Colorado Springs is incredible. 1600’ of elevation change over 30 miles, and Pueblo being in a river valley creates its own mini biome.
Your videos are excellent. I don't have words to appreciate you hard work. Keep going I will always watch them. If I ever found those who disliked your videos I would literally kill them. How can someone dislike your videos.
Thanks very much, but please, do not murder in my name, haha
driving down the 101 from san francisco to LA, you alternate between being in the coastal zone and the inland zone. one time I did that drive in a car with no working AC, and the temperature alternated between ~70 degrees and foggy in the coastal sections and 105 degrees with zero wind in the inland sections. I was practically hanging out the side window to dry myself off after sweating my ass off every time we went inland
Fascinating journey, and brave to do it without A/C!
I live in a city literally right over the hills, and it's honestly crazy. Like, one day, it might be 103-104 degrees (fahrenheit) where I live and then I look at the weather in SF and it's like 75. Seriously crazy!
Yep - I've experience it personally in that area!
I live just east of the center of amsterdam and I am succesfully growing pinot noir and riessling grapes in my garden, When I jump on my bike over the water 15 minutes north, about 4 kilometer as the crow flies, grapes sprout 2 to 3 weeks later.
I wouldn't quite call this a microclimate, but the Wairarapa Valley in New Zealand is significantly hotter than the city of Wellington, about an hour drive away. Between the Wairarapa Valley and the Hutt Valley is the Remutaka Hill Pass, where I have gone from total fog and 13c in the Hutt Valley (satellite city of Wellington) to sudden clear blue skies 25c in the Wairarapa. A less extreme example can be said for the west of the Tararua Ranges to the west of the valley, where towns like Levin and Palmerston North are cooler and cloudier than Masterton and Carterton, and on some occasions if it is sunny in the Wairarapa and you look west, you can see a massive wall of clouds on the Tararua ranges.
The reason why certain places in the American pacific northwest like Forks, Mt. Rainier rarely ever get wildfires unlike most forested areas is that those are the only areas whose summers aren’t bone-dry. And Seattle is always cooler than its inland suburbs in the summer, and warmer than them in the winter.
It's one of the hidden costs of having to move out deep into the peripheral areas of Seattle in the quest for affordable housing. You give up the ability to have mild, rainy winters and instead you'll have winters full of ice and snow!
And the risk, if the mount ever erupted again of being in the middle of the biggest Lahars (mud rivers) the US has seen in living memory)... :O
Door County Wisconsin is between Lake Michigan and Green Bay, which significantly moderates the climate to the point that commercial fruit orchards for cherries and grapes can be found. Being between two bodies of water means that a not only avoids the extreme temperatures of summer and winter but usually escapes late spring and early fall frosts. A more well known example of Great Lakes microclimate are the lake-effect snow bands east of the lakes, especially Buffalo.
Thanks for sharing. Quite a lot of comments here about the Great Lakes - seems they have many different effects in different places along/near the shore.
45ºc (113F) is hot, so we traveled 10 k to the beach in North California. When we go to the beach is was 12º c (55F) windy, and wet. The ocean surface temp can be as low as 10º c, and when that cold air above hits the hot dry air, heavy fog is created.
nice
Great video hope you make a video about how climate change effected koppen climate classification
Thank you. I will tackle this subject at some point, but is incredibly complex, and it takes a lot of research.
The Columbia River Gorge is a wet-dry microclimate caused by the river cutting through the Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon. Mossy forest to steppe in a half hour drive!
Good one! I have experienced this once on a drive from Klamath Falls to the Columbia River, it suddenly changed in the last 15-20 minutes of that long drive.
@@Geodiode Did you go through Dufur and The Dalles? That route stays dry all the way down to the river. Only difference is that it's warmer near The Dalles due to low elevation.
Amazing video as always. I have a few questions about climate though: 1.Wet air feels warmer than dry air in hot conditions and cooler than dry air in cold conditions. Why is this so? 2. As it gets wetter, does the effect keep increasing? 3. Is there a temperature point of intersection where it feels the same whether it would be wet or dry air?
Thanks! And thanks for the public sub! 1. Sweat is less efficient in moist air. It's related to thermodynamics and air molecule speed. You'd have to read up on it to fully get this complex subject. 2. Have you watched the Lima video? Your answer is in the part about formation of fog/rain 3. I don't think so as this is very subjective. See answer to (2) about relative humidity. But a person feeling 70% humidity at 5 celsius will feel different to 70% at 30 celsius. That's more about human perception.
Also, for no. 1: Moisture in the air acts as a heat conductor. If you sit in a sauna at 100 C it's tolerable, but if you splash some water on the heater it will suddenly feel like it's much hotter.
I've got two questions: 1. Can the soil/stone in the ground play a role 2. Is there a "hotter" or "colder" side in a South to North valley Super interesting thanks for the video
You're welcome! 1. Not that I know of, 2. probably not if it's N-S valley as both sides will see equal sunlight, unless, of course there are also morning mists or fog.
Duluth Minnesota also gives two weather reports “by the lake” and “on the hill”
Didn't know that, but it makes sense. Lake effect..
I used to live in a hot area in Brazil, bought a house 25km away, a thousand meters higher above sea level. Here is much colder and there is no accumulation of hot humid air. This mountain I'm in also provides a rain shadow to the city, which helps it being hot and not raining all that much.
Sounds perfect - I don't like the heat!
I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Dfa hot summer humid continental climate). No microclimate here to speak of -- indeed, I can count on the weather to be pretty much the same everywhere within a day's drive -- but there is a local saying, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes." I'm fascinated, though, by places like southern California, where one might say, "If you don't like the weather, drive five miles."
it would be cool to see a more in depth video on different microclimate regions in california (santa barbara, san diego, oakland/bay area), because there are sooooooo many different little climate zones
Sydney is a prominent example as well, but only in spring and summer. The coast will be around 24C and the inland suburbs, just 25km away from the coast, will be above 35C. More extreme cases can occur. In winter though, there is the foehn effect in the southeast coast of Australia. Sydney will be sunny and 20C, while the areas on the western slopes of the great dividing range will be below 5C and rainy or snowy.
Great to hear that about Sydney. I knew about the coastal vs inland summer difference, but didn't know you had a foehn effect in winter.
Florida’s got a nice microclimate, protected by the Gulf Stream surrounding it. The most prominent microclimates though are on the east coast. South Florida is borderline tropical, with the coconut trees and other tropicals. I even got my beloved cocoa trees (chocolate, Theobroma cacao- normally commercially grown 10 degrees north or south of the equator) and other fruit trees (including cashew, soursop, mangoes, miracle fruit, macadamia nut, loquat, etc.) at my house in Ft. Lauderdale area! It stays hot enough year round for them to thrive, though occasional temperatures below 50F means they need to be protected every now and then. As you go further north though, this series of tropical-friendly microclimates dwindles and shrinks into localized zones, especially those hugging the coast. Generally the overall climate transitions from tropical to subtropical north of Palm Beach area. You are able to grow coconut palms as far north as Melbourne area on the east coast, and just south of Tampa on the west coast. As suggested earlier, the east coast of Florida, which juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, tends to be warmer on average than the west coast. The warm tropical climate and microclimates extend further north on the eastern coast than the western coast as well. It is also warmer towards the ocean than inland in the heart of the Everglades. Apparently, there are reported localized microclimates which appear to be warm enough to grow some tropical fruits going into northern Florida, which you normally see significantly more south.
Another proof of how amazing is our planet, it is incredibly how we can find this peculiarities! This kind of things amazes me a lot! Don't forget to visit the Geodiode website guys!
Phoenix, AZ, and Flagstaff, AZ are separated by 145 miles! It's a two and a half hour drive. Phoenix average high during winter is 70° - low temp avg 44° Flagstaff average high during winter is 44° - low temp avg 16°
Flagstaff over Phoenix for liveability, anytime!
I grew up in the California Bay Area. When I would visit cousins in update New York I was always thrilled by the massive summer thunderstorms that were rare in the Bay. I’m turn they would always seem so amazed at our microclimates. It wasn’t until now that I realized how weird they really are. Until I grew up and really got away from home I thought that it was like that everywhere.
Yes, a great contrast. I recall only one thunderstorm in the decade that I lived in SoCal. Thanks for the sub, btw.
@@Geodiode I came for your amazing history of Scotland and found a goldmine of awesome videos! Your content is super interesting and I’ve binged almost all your videos since I’ve found them, can’t wait to see more! :)
Microclimates. Reminds me of California
I miss the microclimates of California, where I lived for so very many years, both in SoCal and in the SF Bay Area
This is off topic for this video, but do you know of any places with a dry climate yet even rainfall all year round? And if so, what factors cause this. I have ChatGPT 4, but not even it can give me a satsifactory answer. I remember reading about a town in Australia which had this pattern, however I wonder if there are other examples. Thank you in advance. I find this top fascinating.
Sheffield, UK is an interesting example of microclimates. Sheffield is built on large hills-The higher neighborhoods get more snow and are noticeably cooler in general than the lower areas (less than 1 km away in some cases). And the higher elevations to the west create a “rain shadow” for parts of the city. We get a lot of clouds, even a lot of rainbows, but not that much actual rain.
Ey up! I spent my teens in nearby Huddersfield, and also experienced similar effects (notably snow on the Pennines while down in the town it was just wet). If you look at a sunny average map of the UK (Met Office produce these), you can see clearly that upland areas have more cloud.
In Italy villages on the south slopes of mountains can get hot during the day in winter. A few miles on the north slope will stay cold all winter.
North Vancouver and Richmond both directly North and south of Vancouver and about 10km apart as the crow flies have drastically different weather. Richmond being in a flat river delta gets sunny and warm weather while North Van nestled up against large mountains, gets all the rain and cooler weather at the same time. Such a shocking difference. Sometimes just 2 km from North Van has sunnier weather
I didn't know this, but it makes sense as you describe the topography. Northern Van will get a lot of "Orographic Lift", meaning air pushed up the mountains and then cooled, causing more rain, vs flat Richmond.
I live in San Diego, perhaps one of California's most famous microclimates. Near the ocean, almost every day is pleasant, but drive 5-10 miles inland and the heat starts to become much more apparent
Coastal San Diego has close to the most perfect climate in the world. Speaking personally ;)