How cold does it get in Southern California really?

With the sudden news on HERCULES and ION plunging brutal cold in decades across the Midwest and North East lately, and believe me, it is quite brutal right now and in two days, the North East will be getting what the midwest is getting now, I ask this question. How cold is cold? Lets put this in perspective. Take SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. A nice quiet little town like TWENTYNINE PALMS CALIFORNIA. Maybe not so quiet with bombing range in the Marine Corps base at Marine Corps Air and Ground Combat Center, but nonetheless, the winters are the envy of people from the North Eastern section of the USA. Take a look at the weather channel online and punch in 29Palms, and you will note, that the average is pretty much in the 60's for a high and a low average of about 40. But lets be honest, it does have its moments when the weather could turn colder and plunge the temperatures in the Desert to the mid 20's or the freezing mark of the low 30's. Even that is quite bearable for anyone retired in the Mojave area of Southern California. Right? Right? MAYBE!!!!!

Contemplate this scenario. Here you are, a Marine stationed in 29Palms and as you are laying in your nice and warm comfortable rack, the corporal of the guard comes to wake you up at 2 AM in the morning informing you that you have GUARD DUTY for two hours a some isolated undisclosed location on the base. Temperature probably around 30 with a strong desert night wind kicked behind those temperatures. You have a few minutes to get in uniform, and whatever else you can shove underneath those utilities to keep you warm. And then you throw on your FIELD JACKET which does NOT HAVE A LINER because liners are a luxury and you must buy them on your own dime, you don't save up to buy because that cuts into your beer money. So you sacrafice some cold pain buy throwing down some sweat shirts underneath, but you must stay in uniform, and none of this stuff better be showing. Your field jacket best stay zipped up and keep it that way because the Marine Corps is big on being in uniform.


So you have your weather gear on, your rifle and you get dumped by the Corporal of the guard at this location after you walked a mile to get to it. None of this give you a ride in a heated car thing. Then its SAYONARA. Good luck and REMEMBER YOUR GENERAL ORDERS. One of which is "To talk to noone except in the line of duty". Talk to who? There aint jack out there but wind, cold and some building you are protecting from who knows what? Ok, so your two hours of walkin your post is done, your face is red, your freezing like a popsicle, your feet are cold when you finally get relieved by another poor Marine that is also wondering why in the world he joined the Marine Corps to put up with this abuse. Then I get to my warm heated barracks. I thaw out for a litte bit, just to lay back in my rack when in two hours later, I get woken up again to start the day.......YES, 29PALMS CALIFORNIA, sunny beautiful as it may seem in the movies can be a MIGHTY COLD PLACE when pulling guard duty at night......have a nice day.

And its in a way, a reminder of this in Houston where I work in low 30's at night, but its a roll of the dice, sometimes I'm in a warm hanger, sometimes I'm outside in the elements, but so is everyone else on my shift and the PAY IS MIGHTY NICE in comparison to being a pay scale of Private First Class USMC where money runs out quite fast just as soon as you get it. But that was all on me. I partied like no tomorrow took trips to LA and San Diego and Palm Springs because I didn't want to hang on base on the weekends pulling watches and cleaning details. But boy was it fun.

I caught a 18F night near BUR in 1989 and 16F in FAT. I heard Tues here in ATL will be 5F. Burrrr

Over here at IAH Tues looks like a low of 22. With the wind who knows? That's cold on the Gulf coast area. I'm off but if I gets the call for some OT.....that cold won't stop me.

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Originally Posted by 29palms

Over here at IAH Tues looks like a low of 22. With the wind who knows? That's cold on the Gulf coast area. I'm off but if I gets the call for some OT.....that cold won't stop me.

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I'm off as well. NO COLD WEATHER WILL STOP ME. I ran in YUL at -10F..

The bottom kind of fell out now, 30's and dropping right now, going to go down to somewhere like 27 degrees tonight, and tomorrow night calling for low of 19 degree on the news. That's pretty brisk if I may say so. I was checking. This front is way down into Mexico too. Tampico and Veracruz getting in on some 30's. You want a Mexican getaway, go with ACAPULCO on the Pacific side.

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Originally Posted by ddagencylv

I'm off as well. NO COLD WEATHER WILL STOP ME. I ran in YUL at -10F..

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Graveyard is short handed so I'm going in. SEA freight went from 8000, 10,000 to 18,000lbs. My crew will have to payload optimize. Sorry SEA-town..:(

They called the whole ot list tonight. I take advantage of teens weather here because alot of people don't show up. I can deal with this for double pay. I can do this in a t-shirt......with an overcoat on top.

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Originally Posted by 29palms

They called the whole ot list tonight. I take advantage of teens weather here because alot of people don't show up. I can deal with this for double pay. I can do this in a t-shirt......with an overcoat on top.

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LOL. Doubletime!! I got it till 0600.

I was in LA last year trying to do my Global Entry crap in Feb when it was 30 at LAX. That was pretty damn chilly for SoCal. It hit 29 up in SFO where I live. But that was just a couple of days.

This is the most temperate place I've ever lived. Winter....low 40's at nite, maybe hi 30's. Days mid 50's/low 60's. Summer....60's/low 70's at nite, upper 70's/mid 80's day. Pretty much never changes from that the entire year + that I've been here.

It got about 22 degrees last night, didn't make the teens. It wasn't that bad, I was prepared for it, and job didn't require working outside on the line or anything major going on outside. We have a neat system of a warm weather/rain gear. It's three pieces you can zip into each other and form a parka. More on weather in a different topic. Shoot. I'll just keep it here.

POLAR VORTEX. Yea? Never heard it called like that. And they say its been 20 years or 1990's since this system showed up. And they are probably right. I remember a few huge dips of arctic blast coming down all the way to Florida, ruining crops and with temperatures of 11 in Jacksonville Florida I've seen once while living there. Of course, when its that cold in Florida, you can only assume that CHICAGO, and MINNEAPOLIS are getting something like -20 or more.

This more recent POLAR VORTEX that has pushed its way into HOUSTON yesterday, and getting in low 20's, seems to be a drag to people here in the southern U.S. mostly because they don't see those temps often. Most people are not cold weather ready with the socks or coats or really understand insolation. Hint, low 20's and sneakers don't cut it. Your feet will ice up. Layering up is another, and I see way to many people complain about the cold but they don't have a hat on nor do they have their jacket or coat or hoodie zipped all the way up. My guess is they've never dealt with weather in the teens that go on for weeks, or even colder temps.

Some people will find a way to avoid working on cold days. Why? All because they are afraid of cold because they don't have the proper gear stored away because they never buy anything for later. I was pretty comfortable last night. I was layered up and when I did have to go outside, there was no pain involved because I understand how to insolate myself. Treat your body like you would water proof a radio on a fishing trip. You know you did a good job if the radio stays dry. When you wear your gear, keep it zipped up to trap the heat in your body. What happens when you have a leaky faucet, your seals are worn out. Or you didn't put a seal in it or your seal got shredded or deteriorated.

It's like heating a house with the door open and windows open. You're heating the house some but losing lots of potential heating. Same with a coat. KEEP IT ZIPPED UP when its cold, don't let the warmth out. Tuck in your t-shirt to your sweats, tuck your socks inside your sweats pant bottoms. Keep that seal in place to keep the heat in your body.