380 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



GENERAL REVIEW OE THE WEATHER OE SANTA BARBARA. 



GIVING THE HIGHEST, LOWEST, AND MEAN TEMPERATURE FOR EACH 

 DAY, FROM JANUARY 1, 1886, TO APRIL 30, 1887, INCLUSIVE. 



By Mr. Hugh D. Vail. 



Santa Barhara, January 31, 1887. 

 Sergeant J as. A. Barwick, Sacramento: 



Dear Sir: I should be glad to furnish you with all the information you desire about 

 the weather of Santa Barbara, did I possess it, or if it coidd lie obtained from a reliable 

 source. My own regular observations have extended over but little more than two years, 

 and during this time have been confined mainly to the record of maximum and minimum 

 temperatures, and the rainfall; such as are given in my monthly reports to the Santa 

 Barbara Press. A summary of these I send you in the form of a table, in which, in addi- 

 tion to the means of the months, and those of the warmest and coldest days in each 

 month, are given the highest and lowest temperature, and the rainfall. 



I can give no reliable statement as to the number of rainy or cloudy days. The rainy 

 days here are very few, indeed. For several years past, 1 think more than three fourths 

 of the rainfall has been at night. To determine the number of cloudy and foggy days 

 would be no easy matter, even if careful observations were made. Here, fogs on the ocean 

 become clouds over the land. The nearness of the Santa Inez Range to the coast causes 

 an upward current of air that generally carries the fog, when there is any, far above our 

 heads, and lodges it near the summit of the mountains. From there it not unfrequently 

 extends out like a canopy, covering half the sky, leaving the other half clear and cloudless. 

 It is the custom here to call these fogs; but they have but little or no effect upon the sur- 

 face of the ground, the grass and leaves remain dry, and were the mountains not in the 

 background they would be seen only as ordinary clouds. 



Our real fogs, those on the surface, occur mainly at night; sometimes flowing in from 

 the Pacific about sunset and disappearing soon after sunrise in the morning; but more 

 frequently rising late in the evening and disappearing again so early in the morning that 

 few persons would know of their having been were it not for the moisture they deposit. 



Though in accordance with your request I have given in the table the highest tempera- 

 ture in each month, I think it no more than just to say that here in Santa Barbara, and 

 perhaps in many other places in California, the very high temperatures occasionally 

 noted have so little influence in determining the climate, and are so likely to deceive 

 those who do not know the cause, and the circumstances under which they occur, that 

 the less note made of them the better. As an illustration of this, the table shows that 

 on the twenty-first of September, 1885, the maximum heat was 103.5°, a temperature 

 greater than was ever known in New York, Philadelphia, or Boston, and one that seems 

 frightful to such as know the effect of a heat of 90° in those places. A brief statement 

 will show that it was of small consequence here. In the morning of that day the mercury 

 stood at 54°; about 11 o'clock a north wind sprang up suddenly and it began to grow 

 warm, but not at all oppressive, so that when one of my boys reported the thermometer 

 at 90°, I thought it impossible, and that he had mistaken 80° for 90°; but an examination 

 shortly after showed it then at 95°. Before one o'clock it had reached the highest point, 

 after which it fell almost as rapidly as it rose, and before the next morning was down to 

 58°. Now this sudden and unusual heat was simply a hot blast from the Mojave Desert, 

 dry and scorching while it lasted, but not oppressive like a muggy atmosphere at 80°. At 

 Philadelphia or New York such a temperature, extended, as it might have been, for a day 

 or two, would have been death to thousands, while here the extreme heat was hardly 

 noticed, and but few, probably, suspected that the thermometer had been much above 80°. 



Sometimes a whole year passes without the occurrence of this hot wind; at other times 

 there may be three or four such in a single year, but neither their frequency nor their 

 duration is such as to give them any importance in determining the climate here. 



I have had no means of determining accurately the force and movement of the wind, 

 and as to the direction, it is here, for the most part, so piirely local as to render any sys- 

 tematic observation of but little value. The strong winds that prevail so generally along 

 the Pacific Coast during the greater part of the year, are here almost or quite unknown. 

 Even a stiff breeze, except during a storm, is of rare occurrence. There are, it is believed, 

 few if any other places in this country, on the seacoast, where the wind varies so little, 

 or where the monthly movement is so small. 



Very respectfullv, 



HUGH D. VAIL. 



February first. — The above communication has been read to me. I confirm the report 

 entire, as corresponding with my experience of several vears. 



ELLWOOD COOPER. 



