...how much it cools off at night. Again, elevation can play into that. I've lived up north and vacationed up north. Nights can be much more pleasant up there compared to down here.
(
Sshhhh! That's our little secret. Watch me shut that news down ...) Pleasant? Pleasant? You call it pleasant to go from the mid-80's to the low-40's in less than 72 hours? That happened twice in May, last year. Then. It went from the 90's to 40°f within 5 days in early June! Pleasant?!
Okay. So, you put an extra blanket on the bed
. But yeah. This was really rough on almost everything just starting to grow in the gardens and, a little less dramatically, it continued for several more weeks. We can have 75 days-to-maturity eggplants that have trouble producing
anything after 130 days in the garden.
Yes, that Portuguese community in Northern California, it was as if they came straight across the Atlantic to settle at the same latitude in Massachusetts. Then, a few of them caught the transcontinental train and came to be fishermen and dairymen in northern California, where I used to live.
You are right but proximity to water can be weirdly moderating. That northern Cal community had 1667 growing degree days in 2019. Seattle, many hundreds of miles to the north, and on salt water as well, had 2786 GDD in the same year. The difference is that Seattle may be on salt water but it's also behind the mountains on the Olympic Peninsula. Eureka California has a sandbar ... of course, one could drive east out of Eureka and travel 100 miles over some mountains to Red Bluff California and experience 4912 GDD last year.
Steve
