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By: Jim Christopherson - Meteorologist - July 20th
Imperial Valley Weather and the Camelot Index
The fabled Camelot has an ideal climate. It's always sunny and mild.
Which city in the United State has the best climate? To find the city, Jan Null, a highly respected and now retired forecaster from the San Francisco National Weather Service Office created the Camelot Climatic Index. He used his Camelot Index to rate 158 of the largest cities in the Unites States.
San Diego weather is the most like Camelot according to Null. Juneau, Alaska comes in last at number 158. Null did not choose to rate the Imperial Valley. However, he did rate Yuma. Yuma is rated the 15th best of his 158 U.S. cities.
When I worked at the National Weather Service in San Francisco, 43 years ago, we often received phone calls asking "Which city in California has the best climate?" Many of the callers were from out of state. Many people stated they were ready to retire. Examining the California climate books, forecasters at San Francisco searched for cities, which have year-round sunshine and mild temperatures. (Later we discovered that many callers also wanted to enjoy the seasonal changes. Our choice of cities did not help them.)
Which California cities have the most sunshine along with a very mild year-round temperature? Our answer was Alpine near San Diego and Ojai, which is north of Ventura. (I now believe that Pine Valley is better than Alpine. Alpine is often near the San Diego smog layer. It can be much colder in Pine Valley however.) Forecasters were not looking at air pollution problems, pollen counts, or areas with a high danger from wildfires. The San Francisco forecasters were just looking at weather climate data. Practically, other problems, like horrendous traffic conditions, can make an area far from peaceful.
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San Francisco forecasters also liked cities in the western Sierra, at an altitude between about 2,000 and 4,000. These cities are located above the summer heat and the winter of fog of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys and below the heavy winter snowline.
From mid April through mid October, with 170 afternoons over 90 degrees, and 125 days over 100, the weather conditions in the Imperial Valley are far from ideal. However, to our winter visitors, the weather in the Imperial Valley is like Camelot.
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