If you ask the National Weather Service how unusual or how typical this kind of heat is in San Diego in July, they’ll tell you it’s both unusual and typical.
It’s not all that unusual for temperatures to get above 100 degrees in the inland areas and even not unusual for it to reach the 90s at the coast. It doesn’t happen a lot during the summer, but it does happen some.
Some might call it typical. But forecasters say this particular heat wave is not that typical. That’s because the inland valley temperatures are expected as high as 110 and that’s more typical of what it’s like in the deserts this time of year.
When we do have this kind of not typical but not unusual heat every so often in San Diego, it does make you appreciate why you live here and not let’s say someplace like Phoenix where 110 in the summer IS typical and it lasts pretty much all summer long.
When you ask people who do live in Phoenix how they deal with it, they’ll usually tell you that typically it means staying in air conditioning as much as you can, moving from one air conditioned spot to the next air conditioned spot.
And of course if you’re in Phoenix, it takes 6 hours to get to the beach where a lot of people in San Diego without air conditioning can get to in minutes when it gets this hot.
That’s why we have the usual and typical mass invasion by Zonies this time of year every year. But then when we feel heat like this in San Diego for maybe a day or so, who can blame them?
(Photo of Coronado beach by Ian Burgar)