South Coast & Los Angeles Basin
A coastal plain with a 10,000-foot wall behind it — which is why the wind here blows the wrong way.
The Transverse Ranges run east-west, across the grain of every other range in the state, and they turn the Los Angeles Basin into a bowl open only to the sea. Onshore, that traps marine air and the pollution in it under a subsidence inversion. Offshore — when high pressure builds over the Great Basin — the same bowl funnels desert air down through Cajon and Soledad and the Santa Ana canyons, compressing and drying it on the way, and the coast records its hottest temperatures on a wind that came from the desert in October.
- Elevation range
- 0 ft → 10,064 ftHigh point: Mount San Antonio (Baldy)
- Relief
- 10,064 ftTop to bottom, inside this region
- Span
- 189 × 97 miEast–west by north–south
- Annual rainfall
- 12–30″Driest to wettest ground here
- Köppen types
- CsaBSh4 counties
Map of South Coast & Los Angeles Basin within California.
The four seasons here
NOT A GENERIC SEASON WITH THE PLACE NAME SWAPPED INWinter
The entire rainfall budget, delivered in a handful of storms. A dry January means a dry year.
Spring
May Gray. The marine layer deepens as the interior warms while the ocean has not yet.
Summer
June Gloom, then hot and hazy inland with the coast held near 75°F.
Autumn
Santa Ana season and the peak of fire danger — the landscape is at its driest and the wind is at its strongest.
Places in this region
7 PLACES, LOWEST FIRST| Place | Elevation | Jan high | Jan low | Jul high | Jul low | Annual precip | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Barbara | 13 | 67° | 46° | 76° | 60° | 19.0″ | — |
| Long Beach | 39 | 67° | 47° | 81° | 65° | 12.0″ | — |
| Oxnard | 52 | 66° | 46° | 72° | 60° | 12.9″ | — |
| Los Angeles (LAX) | 125 | 66° | 49° | 75° | 64° | 12.2″ | — |
| Los Angeles | 305 | 68° | 49° | 82° | 65° | 14.2″ | — |
| Burbank | 778 | 67° | 45° | 87° | 64° | 13.9″ | — |
| Riverside | 837 | 70° | 43° | 95° | 64° | 10.0″ | — |
National Parks in this weather region
FIELD NOTES FROM THE PARK TRANSECTTerrain and gradients
WHAT THE ELEVATION ACTUALLY DOESRanges and passes
A PASS IS A WIND FEATURE FIRSTWho forecasts it
OFFICIAL FORECASTS AND WARNINGS COME FROM HEREGolden State Weather is not a source of watches or warnings. For those, go to the offices above.