While fall has officially been in session for almost two months now, the fall weather has yet to arrive. Southern California is still facing lots of summer heat and, while it is not quite as intense, it is definitely not the fall coolness we had all anticipated.
Although, yes, we do live in California where there aren’t many days of the year that aren’t liveable weather with warm temperature and clear skies, there doesn’t seem to be much transition weather throughout the year. Summer in California averages in the 100s and while it does cool down significantly in the fall, the sun is still blaring in the mid 80s all the way through November. Then, it seems like after November, we jump straight into cold, nose-nipping weather.
North sophomore, Mikayla Haines shares, “One day, it’s [like] really hot and then the other day it’s [like] freezing,”.
Recently, fall has seemed less and less fall-like. There haven’t been many chilly days, besides in the mornings but then it warms up later in the day anyways. The biggest reason for this continuous heat wave is all thanks to the California current and Santa Ana winds. Air from the ocean blows into the valleys and coast throughout the years and affects these different areas in different ways. Unfortunately for us in the Inland Empire, we get warmer fall months and colder winter months.
According to Medium.com, these winds cause the air to heat up or cool down based on elevation. “However, coastal California is surrounded on the north and east by tall mountain ranges, so the air has to descend down these mountains before reaching the coast. As the air descends in elevation, it gets compressed and warmed; compressing the air adds energy to it, which manifests as heat,”.
But the classic Santa Ana winds aren’t the only thing causing this wacky weather, the main cause of this temperature change is, of course, climate change. Human caused greenhouse gasses have one of the biggest impacts on the planet as of recent, especially in Southern California. The Conversation.com shares why this autumn particularly will be uncannily warm this year, “Instead, it is far more plausible that it is the longer-term accumulation of heat in recent decades, from the combined effects of gradually increasing greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing aerosols, that is driving record warmth this year,”.
When asked what she thinks is affecting the unusually warm weather, Elsy Larios, a North sophomore says, “It’s probably changed a lot recently because, well we’ve already talked about global warming, but it’s a big part of it. And…we just don’t take care of the world when we’re supposed to take better care of it,”.
Even though we are already so far past summer and fall has been around officially for a couple months now, we shouldn’t expect much of a change until winter rolls around. As we all know, the transition from California fall to winter is not the most pleasant but there is not much we can do about it, especially in record breaking heat. Unless we can learn to reverse climate change and natural causes, this new autummer (autumn and summer) might be something we all have to get used to.
