Andean versus central coast climates

WEATHER

Andean versus central coast climates

The main reason the cloudforest home page has weather reports for both Quito, Ecuador and Monterey, California is because the two have virtually identical climates. OK, so Monterey gets slightly cooler in the Winter, but not by much. And, as the plants themselves can attest, most species from the Andean highlands really thrive around here.

Anyone familiar enough with the whims of the central coast weather knows it's wise to always carry layered clothing. In Santa Cruz, it's not uncommon for the mercury to hit a balmy 70 to 80 degrees in the early afternoon, and then take a major drop into the upper 50's by evening. It's almost as if all four seasons are packed into a single day. Spring-like temperatures in the morning quicky give way to summer. But by late afternoon, fall returns, and as the night moves in, it often feels a bit like winter.

But this same scenario is often outlined in South American tour guides when discussing the Andean highlands. So why not actually compare climate readings? So we choose a random year, and overlapped the high and low readings for both Monterey, CA and Quito Ecuador. What we found was amazing. The temperature curves almost overlap.

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Comparing Quito, Ecuador to Monterey, CA
Thanks to the international data available on the internet, it is possible to look up weather readings in Andean cities. We made the interesting comparison between Quito Ecuador and monterey, CA, and found the two cities to have very similar temperature readings. The image above compares the temperature readings of both cities during the year 1994. Monterey is represented by the green traces.

Of course, the central coast is littered with microclimates which vary significantly, so different locations will have different degrees of similarity. Of course, the Andes are also littered with a variety of microclimates, depending much on altitude and on slope location, e.g. with good cold air drainage. For example, Santa Cruz, located on the northeastern end of the Monterey Bay, is very wind protected, and thus gets warmer summers. Yet, winters tend to be a bit cooler, since Santa Cruz is also located in a major drainage basin of the Santa Cruz mountains, and as such, temperatures on clear nights fall quickly, often leading to frost, or even minor freezes. Nevertheless, looking beyond the rare dip below freezing, we did find a signiicant similarity between Santa Cruz and Bogota. The graph below compares the Santa Cruz Delavega station with Bogota, Colombia for 1994.

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Comparing Bogota, Colombia to Santa Cruz, CA
Despite the occasional drop below freezing, Santa Cruz overall has a similar climate to what is found in Bogota, Colombia. Locations in the foothills above Santa Cruz with better frost drainage do an even better job of simulating the Bogota climate. The image above compares the temperature readings of both cities during the year 1994. Santa Cruz is represented by the green traces.

There are locations in the foothills above Santa Cruz and which have better cold air drainage, and as a result have microclimates which come very close to a frost free Andean climate. But ultimately, the most perfect Andean climate replica is found in the foothills of the Santa Inez mountains in Santa Barbara and Ventura county. These locations rarely have lows which drop much below 40 F, and highs which dont't get much above 80 F. These microclimates replicate the 5000 feet Andean highland coffee belt almost perfectly. And how did the Goleta foothills fare in the 1990 freeze? They only got to 31 F. This is truly a rare fruit grower's paradise. But for the real thing, you will have to head to the Andes.

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Cherimoya Heaven
We found these readings above for Rionegro, Colombia for the year 1994. At an altitude of 2137 m (6400 feet) the lows are in the 50's, and the highs are in the 70's. Note that the temperature did drop down to 32 F at least once, but that is something most Andean fruits will tolerate.

The Cloudforest Gardener

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	Cloudforest Gardener 8/1999 - Please ask before linking this article Copyright © 1999 Cloudforest Gardener