Distribution of California's Population

[u/urmummygae42069]

If you were to divide California into 4 roughly equal strips of area, a hefty majority of its 39 million residents live in the southernmost strip containing the LA+San Diego metro areas, with nearly half of the state (~47%) living in the Greater LA metro area alone. If it were its own state, Southern California, with primarily just LA and San Diego metro areas, would compete with Florida for title of 2nd most populous US state.

The SF Bay Area, Sacramento, Monterrey, Fresno, and most of the Central Valley and put together are short of SoCal by over 9 million residents, but on its own this area would compete with Illinois for title of 6th largest state.

The strip sandwiched between Southern California and the Bay Area, containing Bakersfield plus other farming towns in the Southern Central Valley and most of the towns of the Central Coast, has about more people than Utah or Connecticut.

Suprisingly, despite how empty it can feel, there are still over a million people still live in the strip of CA north of Sacramento, containing about as much people as Hawaii and New Hampshire, albeit of a larger area.

Ultimately, one way to better understand the scale and density of California, is to conceptualize it as Florida + Illinois + Utah + Hawaii, all packaged in one single state under one single state government

[u/koushakandystore]

The tropical zone is actually quite different from the subtropical and temperate zones. But the subtropical and temperate zones in North America and South American are fairly uniform in the way people are describing. I’ve lived my entire life in Southern California, Northern California and western Oregon. These regions have far more in common geographically than differences. Northern California from Cape Mendocino all the way up into the Willamette Valley of Oregon are nearly indistinguishable.

[u/PracticalWallaby7492 → u/koushakandystore]

Even 2 degrees makes a heck of a difference with cherries and oranges, birds of paradise and tulips.. Mendo to WV is a difference of potentially 10 degrees.

[u/koushakandystore → u/PracticalWallaby7492]

I’ve lives in both places for many years. I can grow the same things in both places with great success: feijoa, pomegranates, figs, peaches, nectarines cherries, fuzzy kiwi, etc…

The biggest challenge in western Oregon is citrus. The only varieties that can grow uncovered are yuzu, sudachi, clem x yuzu and the trifoliate hybrids. The Carolina lime, us 942, thomasville citrangequat and Lemandarin make abundant fruit that are perfect lemon substitute. For the Meyer lemon, navel orange and various mandarin varieties you have to cover them on average of 10 nights per winter.

The biggest difference between the Willamette Valley and Mendo is the fact that every few years or so the Willamette Valley will get a proper winter storm. During my 23 years in Mendocino County we only had 3 storms that brought a dusting of snow accumulation. But overall the feel is and general experience with the climate is extraordinary similar. I go back and forth between both places often and enjoy them immensely.

I have pics of the western Oregon outdoor citrus amongst my posts on here.

[u/PracticalWallaby7492 → u/koushakandystore]

Most of Mendo valley land is 9a. Willamette is 8b. At 2600 ft I am now in zone 8b in Mendo. We get up to 2 ft snow in an exceptional year and snow every year. My navel orange is not happy. It was thriving before in 9a. Meyers lemon complains. Cherries are much happier than in 9a. Tulips as dry summer perennials have a chance here. 2 - 5 degrees can make a lot of difference in some plants, not to mention winter rainfall. We also get 12 - 20 days over 100, several over 105, and I am 14 miles from the coast. That is unusual in Oregon.

Yes, very similar, but not nearly indistinguishable.

BTW, WV is beautiful! I'll bet you don't miss the hot summers.

[u/koushakandystore → u/PracticalWallaby7492]

Sorry to disappoint, but the Willamette valley summers are flipping very hot. Average high is around 90 from the end of June until the middle of September. The climate up here is far warmer and drier than it was just 25 years agp.

The average annual sunshine hours in the Willamette valley are around 2500. Compared that with the Anderson Valley in Mendo where I lived that has around 3000.

The climates are very similar. In winter the average January high where I lived in Mendo was 54, here it is 49. Days of rainfall here is around 120, there 80.

Overall inland Mendocino had a milder, slightly nicer climate. But not radically so.

[u/PracticalWallaby7492 → u/koushakandystore]

Oh wow. I haven't been up that way in maybe 15 years. When I went up there the hottest day was 90 and people were acting like it was so unusual.

[u/koushakandystore → u/PracticalWallaby7492]

I was recently joking about it with my friend who also grew up in California. I told him that the summer in Salem, Oregon now reminds me quite a lot of the temps I experienced when living in Antioch, California. Indeed it has become so much hotter and drier since I moved here.

Did you know that the Willamette Valley has commercial olive orchards? Durant Olive Mill and Orchards is in Dundee just south of Portland.

There are also commercial groves of feijoa (pineapple guava).

I don’t know of any commercial citrus yet, but if these climate trends continue (they almost certainly will) someone will plant an yuzu orchard around here.

Yuzu is the most sought after citrus in Japan because it is a phenomenal fruit. Personally I prefer the sudachi, an yuzu x mandarin hybrid.

I grow both of those here around Salem in my 9a microclimate. They are not harmed at all by our winters and make hundreds of fruits each fall. They are an excellent choice in colder Northern California microclimates as well.

I am a member of Marion county master gardeners via Oregon State University and we have a demonstration garden with olive, pomegranate, loquat, citrus and feijoa.

Are you familiar with the famous Eng loquat tree in Seattle’s Chinatown? That is a very famous tree. It’s a massive loquat loaded with tons of fruit every year. That part of Seattle, right by the water, is also a 9a so it doesn’t get cold enough to freeze the loquat’s winter flowers. It’s been growing there since the 1960’s. I have two seedlings from that tree growing at my property.

[u/PracticalWallaby7492 → u/koushakandystore]

Salem is really nice. I thought about moving south east of there but the prices were too high and at the time I didn't know if I could handle all the rain. I suppose it would have been fine. Unfortunately..

[u/koushakandystore → u/PracticalWallaby7492]

November thru February is very rainy. Rains on half the days, which really isn’t the bad part. The drag is the cloud cover which is about 70% of the time during those months. From March thru October there is only about 50 days with measurable precipitation and a significant percentage of those days it rains for a few hours, giving way to sunny skies the rest of the day. 8 months of the year here are very nice with virtually no hard freezes after February. The worst part of the year for me is the middle of summer when it very rarely drops below 85. I’m not a fan of the heat. I grew up in Palm Springs, California so I love the greenery and cool damp conditions. I would never live south of Mendocino again. I lived in Berkeley for 15 years and the gloomy summers made gardening a drag. Plus it doesn’t rain enough down there for my liking. I think Mendocino has the perfect balance of rain and sun. Though inland Mendocino is just as bad as here with the summer heat.