Climatic Diversity In California: From Deserts To Snow-covered Mountains
California originally belonging to Mexico was won with 6 other states from the Mexican American War. After the war in 1850, it was officially granted statehood. California became the 31st state. California is the largest state by population and third largest by size. The state capital is Sacramento and its largest city it, Los Angeles. California has the largest economy of any state. Not only do we have all the things I stated we also have diversity. Today I will be discussing diversity in California not only will I be talking about the vast climates throughout California, but also geophysical features, and the plant and animal life in California.
California has some of the most diverse climates in the world. Depending on where you are in California you may be experiencing a wide variety of climates from deserts to snow-covered mountains to something in between. The climate depends on where you are. On the coast, it's not uncommon to find a great amount of fog, especially in San Francisco. If you live on the coast as we do it usually stays at a temperate temperature year round. Many articles I read described the coast as a “Mediterranean like climate.” This climate is characterized by dry summers and mild wet winters. While living on the coast allows us to have a fairly steady climate year-round going up in elevation creates more distinct seasons.
While we are at sea level the higher elevation you go the colder it gets. Unlike states such as Florida California has quite a lot of mountains. The article How Does Elevation Effect Weather? from the website, sciencing.com written by Chris Deziel states, “As the elevation increases, the temperature drops at an average rate of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit per 1,000 feet.” California is such a wonderful place for one because you can be on the coast and in an hour or two you can be up in the mountains with snow all around. While there are many places in California where one can find snow in the winter you can also find deserts.
There are 3 main deserts in California, the Mojave Desert, the Great Basin Desert, and the Colorado Desert. A desert as defined by Google is, “a dry, barren area of land, especially one covered with sand, that is characteristically desolate, waterless, and without vegetation.” The desert takes up approximately 25% of California according to newworldencyclopdia.com. The most famous desert in California is the Mojave Desert. It is in southeastern California and is most famous for Death Valley. Death Valley is one of the hottest places on earth and I will talk about it more when I’m discussing geophysical features of California. The desert is known for its lack of water, but does California also?
For more than seven years spanning all the way back to 2011 California has had one drought or another. The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska tweeted on March 14, 2019, “It’s the first time the state has been free of drought since Dec. 20, 2011.” For more than seven years California has been in a drought, but what changed? The U.S as a whole had the wettest record since 1895 during the winter season. This helped California fill reservoirs and fill snowpacks. While it has been a wonderful year in terms of not having a drought it can’t be said the same for wildfires.
In 2018 California saw the most and deadliest wildfire’s in state history. In the San Francisco Chronicle by Kurtis Alexander is states, “A total of 8,527 fires that burnt 1,893,913 acres.” That is the most acres that have burned in one fire season. That is concerning news because to get wildfires you have to have dry heat which we have been having more of. 2018 wasn’t the hottest year on record but was the fourth hottest year on record according to climatecentral.org. Each year it seems to be getting hotter or close to it. This doesn’t only affect us, but also the globe as a whole. With each new wildfire, it changes the landscape or the geophysical features which we will be discussing next.
California has very diverse geophysical features from Mount Whitney to Death Valley and everything in between. Let’s began with some of the most famous mountains in California. Mount Whitney is the tallest mountain in California with an elevation of 14,505 feet. It is actually the second tallest mountain in the United States with the first one being in Alaska called Mount McKinley or Denali which is just above 20,000 feet in elevation. The first summit of Mount Whitney was completed on August 18, 1973, by Charles Beogole, A.H Johnson and John Lucas. Mount Whitney isn’t the only mountain we also have the Sierra Nevada which has one of the most famous national parks in the world.
Yosemite National Park is located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and was first declared a national park in 1891. Yosemite is located roughly 3 hours away from us and has some of the most beautiful mountains in the world. Yosemite is iconic for its large sheer walls which attracts mountain climbers from around the world. It’s most famous face is called El Capitan which is made out of granite and roughly 3,000 feet tall. El Capitan gained a lot of attention in 2017/2018 due to the fact that professional climber Alex Honnold summited it without the use of any ropes. While California has a lot of beautiful mountain ranges, but we also have deserts.
Deserts make up roughly 25% of California with the most famous one being the Mojave Desert. The Mojave Desert is the most famous desert due to the fact that you drive through if you are going to Las Vegas and more importantly Death Valley is located in it. Death Valley is as you would guess a valley that is -282 feet in elevation. Meaning that its 282 below sea level. Death Valley is one of the hottest places on earth. The article by Live Science states, “In fact, the all-time hottest temperature ever measured on Earth came on July 10, 1913, when Death Valley hit a sizzling 134 degrees F (56.7 degrees C).” This sort of heat is insane is mostly due to the fact that the valley is located between 4 mountain ranges. It’s in the “rain shadow” which mean the cool breeze from the ocean has to pass over 4 mountain to get to it. Death Valley is actually a tourist destination due to its hiking trails and historical landmarks. We have talked about the extremes of California, but what is Central California like?
Central California is where we live and is where over a third of the fruits, vegetable, and nuts we in the U.S are grown. In the article, Everyone Eat Thereby the NYTimes written by Mark Bittman it states, “It’s larger than nine different states, but the size is only one of its defining characteristics: the valley is the world’s largest patch of Class 1 soil, the best there is.” He goes on to say, “Now the valley yields a third of all the produce grown in the United States.” Unlike many places in the world, the central valley grows over 230 different types of crops. While the central valley may not be the most glamorous feature of California it’s a vital part what makes California.
California’s shore runs along more than 1,000 miles of the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean is an important feature of California not only because it brings tourist, but also it is a food source. The ocean is an important geophysical feature because it brings in a lot of money from tourism and mostly fishing. Our shore also holds some interesting features about it. While I’m not sure if it’s technically in California it’s quite close. Starting in Moss landing and extending 95 miles out is the Monterey Canyon. With its uncommon depth, it’s a great place to study marine life which MBARI does. California has very diverse geophysical features, but it also has a diverse plant and animal life which we will be talking about next.
In California, there are somewhere between 4500-6000 native plants the reports vary and continue to change. On the Las Pilitas Nursery website, they describe California’s plants as a “hotspot for biodiversity.” Of all the plants in California, there are two that come to mind and they are the giant redwoods and the states plant the poppy. Redwoods are synonymous to California. We have the largest redwood forest and also the tallest tree in the world. Hyperion the tallest tree in the world found in 2006 and is 379 feet tall. Redwood's average lifespan is 500-700 years but there are some that are over 2000 years old. The oldest know redwood is 3,500 years old. This tree is famous in California for its size, but let's look at something way smaller the poppy.
The poppy is California’s state flower. It used to be a food source for Native Americans where they would eat it or use the oil from it. From the library of Calfornia, it states, “Its botanical name, Eschscholzia californica, was given by Adelbert Von Chamisso, a naturalist and member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, who dropped anchor in San Francisco in 1816 in a bay surrounded by hills of the golden flowers.” The poppy is actually illegal to pick if it’s on public property. It can get you a misdemeanor offense which can get you 6 months in jail and a 1000 dollar fine. Almost 100 years later after Adelbert Von Chamisso gave the flower its botanical name it became the state flower in 1903 and April 6th is now a poppy day in California.
California has the most diverse animal population in the United States. There are of course to many animals to say, but I will be talking about our state bird the quail, coyotes and the black bear. The quail as described by allaboutbirds.org are, “plump, short-necked game birds with a small head and bill. They fly on short, very broad wings. The tail is fairly long and square.” The quail is a prized game bird and flocks of them can be as much as 60 to only a couple. The quail became California’s state bird in 1931.
Coyotes are interesting especially in California because they can be found in every different terrain in California. From deserts to mountains to the coast you can find coyotes. Coyotes diets consist or small animals such as squirrels, rabbits, and mice. Because they eat small game they are a problem for some pet owners with small dogs. Coyotes are a problem for some communities because coyotes sometimes live in towns which can lead to the death of some pets. Coyotes are a nongame animal which means you can legally kill them if they are on your property. While coyotes do sometimes kill pets they mainly stick to a natural diet they are used to like killing rodents.
Black bears are found in northern California and have great population numbers. They estimate that there are 25 to 30 thousand black bears in California alone and is the world’s most populous bear species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has it rated as a “least concern” species. The black bear is omnivores and will eat just about everything. Because of this, they love trash. My grandparents live up at Bass Lake and have a black bear that eats out of neighbors trash cans almost every night during spring/summer. Unlike grizzly bears, the black bear doesn’t really like human interaction and in most cases run away if confronted with loud screams.
Today I discussed the different climates throughout California, geophysical features around California and couple plants and animals found in California. California is such a wonderful place to live due to all these different environments. You can find exactly what you want in California if that’s living in the hot, cold or somewhere in between like the coast. I think the statement that there are “many California’s” is absolutely true especially after I wrote this essay. California I believe is one of the most diverse places in the world to live and I am blessed to live here.
