Yes there are seasons in LA. They\u2019re just \u2026 confused<\/p>\n
LAist senior editor Suzanne Levy explores why L.A. winters are so contradictory.<\/p>\n
They say there are no seasons in L.A. That\u2019s just wrong. There are, it\u2019s just they don\u2019t make any sense. In the U.K., where I\u2019m from, the seasons are pretty predictable. A period of lots of rain (winter), then a little less rain (spring), rain when you don\u2019t want it (summer) and back to lots of rain (autumn). And yes, as far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s autumn. Not fall. Fall is a verb, not a noun.<\/p>\n
But here in L.A., as I look up at a tree with maroon leaves next to a palm tree, it\u2019s like someone picked up all the seasons and threw them up in the air and let them fall as they will. (See what I did there?) <\/p>\n
So yes, in winter the air is cold, but the sun is hot. There\u2019s hot chocolate and iced latte, sometimes at the same time. There\u2019s woodfire smoke in the evening and lunchtime outdoor dining. Sit inside or out? Um, can we do both? Like my top half is in the sun, but my bottom half is in the shade, and then I flip like a burger?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A palm tree in downtown L.A. <\/p>\n
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Newcomer confusion<\/p>\n
It\u2019s certainly confusing for new arrivals. We got here in January some years ago, leaving a cold rainy East Coast behind. I spent the first Sunday sitting at a beachfront cafe as the sun shone gorgeously down from the heavens. <\/p>\n
But as we went down to the ocean, my then-5-year-old daughter looked about, panicking, and said, \u201cMommy, we mustn\u2019t be here, there\u2019s nobody here!\u201d <\/p>\n
I looked about and realized she was right. There was no one on the beach, even though it was pretty warm. Definitely as warm as I remember summer vacations being in the U.K., where you\u2019d put up wind breaks on the sand and huddle next to them as the North wind blew across the beach and the sun apathetically glanced down every now and then.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I said soundlng like the love child of Mary Popppins and Steven Fry. \u201cCome on! I\u2019d have given anything to be on a beach like this as a kid! Lovely weather!\u201d <\/p>\n
So we walked along on the deserted sand as I shook my head at the waste of it all. These wide, wide beaches…and no one on them? These Californians need to build character. Make them go on beach walks when it\u2019s below 70 degrees! It\u2019s a shame, I said, shame.<\/p>\n
Lying thermostats<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019ve been here over a decade and have acclimatized. I think going to the beach past November is the mark of a mad person, and I feel the cold in my bones. Not from the swirling snow outside, or from the freezing winds hurtling down a city block, but in my home. Yes …. it\u2019s often colder inside than out. At least it feels that way. The thermostat cheerfully tells me it\u2019s 71 degrees and I want to yell at it: \u201cYou\u2019re lying! How is this 71 degrees when my feet at my desk are iceblocks and I\u2019m burrowing my nose in the scarf that apparently I\u2019m wearing indoors even though it\u2019s blazing sunshine outside?\u201d <\/p>\n
Sometimes I need to sit in my puffer coat on top of a heater just to keep my body temperature higher than a reptile.<\/p>\n
Look, I know it\u2019s because they didn\u2019t put insulation in most L.A. houses last century, and my feet are resting on a few inches of wooden floor and then nothing \u2014 just a massive hole in the ground \u2014 but it just seems odd. I go outside to warm up in the middle of the day, and turn my face up to the sky to absorb the liquid gold, and all is good …. until I go inside again and scream at the thermostat.<\/p>\n
But a confused California winter season is still better than most other places. The air doesn\u2019t attack you when you\u2019re outside, like New York or Chicago. And snow is for mountains only. There\u2019s no scraping ice off windshields, only a mild condensation. It doesn\u2019t take 30 minutes to dress your kids when you\u2019re about to go out, and you can get wonderfully sweet strawberries, freshly picked, at the farmers market. Or a persimmon. Or a plum. In December.<\/p>\n
So as I head out in a fleece, shorts and flip flops to get wood for my fireplace while picking up more sun tan lotion, let\u2019s hear it for SoCal\u2019s crazy seasons, confused as hell and making it up as they go along \u2014 like most of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yes there are seasons in LA. They\u2019re just \u2026 confused LAist senior editor Suzanne Levy explores why L.A.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":446544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,3158,2961,224,5337,98488,41372,3159],"class_list":{"0":"post-446543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-cold","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-palm-trees","15":"tag-seasons","16":"tag-winter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115718188406893418","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}