South Coast Drainage
Southern California's coastal plains and ranges.
Climate divisions are broad reporting areas. Golden State Weather's eighteen terrain regions nest inside them imperfectly but usefully: the division supplies the statewide frame, while the region explains which range, gap, basin or coastline makes one station differ from the next.
Transverse RangesThe only major east-west ranges on the West Coast, and the reason Southern California's weather is strange.MOUNTAINS3 PLACESSouth Coast & Los Angeles BasinA coastal plain with a 10,000-foot wall behind it — which is why the wind here blows the wrong way.COAST7 PLACESChannel IslandsEight islands sitting in the temperature gradient that drives the whole Southern California coast.COAST0 PLACESPeninsular RangesThe steepest escarpment in the lower 48, and a desert at the bottom of it.MOUNTAINS2 PLACESSan Diego County & the BorderThree climates in sixty miles: semi-arid coast, mountain pine forest, and open desert.COAST3 PLACES
California map highlighting South Coast Drainage.
5 terrain regions, 15 stations. Atlas regions assigned to CA-6.
The atlas station sample
PRO · NOT AN AREAL AVERAGEThese figures summarize the named NOAA stations attached to this site's places inside the division. They are useful for comparing its internal spread, but they are not NCEI's official gridded or area-weighted divisional series. Mountains and cities are intentionally over-represented because this is a terrain atlas.
15Atlas stations
9.8–32.2″Annual precipitation
65.1–79.5°FJuly mean
13–6,752ftStation elevation
| Place | Region | Elev ft | Jan mean | Jul mean | Annual precip | Snow | Nov–Apr share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ojai | Transverse Ranges | 745 | 50.2° | 71.5° | 20.7″ | 0.1″ | 92% |
| Santa Barbara | South Coast & Los Angeles Basin | 13 | 56.6° | 68.3° | 19.0″ | — | 92% |
| Big Bear Lake | Transverse Ranges | 6,752 | 34.9° | 65.1° | 20.0″ | 58.6″ | 84% |
| Mount Wilson | Transverse Ranges | 5,710 | 47.2° | 74.3° | 32.2″ | — | 90% |
| Burbank | South Coast & Los Angeles Basin | 778 | 56.1° | 75.6° | 13.9″ | — | 92% |
| Oxnard | South Coast & Los Angeles Basin | 52 | 56.1° | 66.5° | 12.9″ | — | 92% |
| Los Angeles | South Coast & Los Angeles Basin | 305 | 58.5° | 73.3° | 14.2″ | — | 92% |
| Riverside | South Coast & Los Angeles Basin | 837 | 56.4° | 79.5° | 10.0″ | — | 89% |
| Los Angeles (LAX) | South Coast & Los Angeles Basin | 125 | 57.8° | 69.5° | 12.2″ | — | 92% |
| Long Beach | South Coast & Los Angeles Basin | 39 | 57.2° | 73.2° | 12.0″ | — | 92% |
| Idyllwild | Peninsular Ranges | 5,413 | 43.0° | 70.2° | 24.4″ | 30.7″ | 84% |
| Escondido | San Diego County & the Border | 660 | 56.8° | 75.8° | 14.5″ | — | 91% |
| Julian | Peninsular Ranges | 4,226 | 45.8° | 74.0° | 24.5″ | 6.4″ | 88% |
| Mount Laguna | San Diego County & the Border | 5,980 | 41.7° | 71.2° | 17.6″ | — | 83% |
| San Diego | San Diego County & the Border | 62 | 58.4° | 70.7° | 9.8″ | — | 89% |