Below is our second of twelve installments in which we (as in Ben Koo and Joe Lucia) try to assign a monetary value to the nice California weather. We will be doing this post once a month for all of 2018.
Each day, Joe and I log the weather of where we currently live and formerly lived and then assign a value between -$100 to $100 depending on the difference, as well as what was in our daily routine and social life. Joe moved from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Orange County and I did a reverse move from the Bay Area to Columbus, Ohio.
This is our attempt to use some type of systematic evaluation to answer the question: How much is California’s weather really worth?
Ben’s breakdown
Total value: $638
Average California high temperature: (Campbell, CA) 64 degrees
Average Ohio high temperature: (Columbus, OH) 47 degrees
Total days Ohio weather was equal to or better than California weather: four
Summary: This month’s total was $638, which is nearly $100 less than last month’s total of $715. Ohio’s average temperature rose one degree and California’s average temperature actually went down in March by one degree. You would think that the slightly better than February weather would have me in better spirits after an absolutely BRUTAL January and February. That was not the case at all. March broke me.
If you read my February writeup, Ohio was almost even with California in the middle portion of the month and then even was logged as having better weather in the last portion of the month. I thought I had survived the winter. I thought March would give me a handful to a dozen pleasent days of weather. When I last lived in the midwest, I distinctly recall wonderful March days with people enjoying the sun, patio drinking, and outdoor day drinking while watching the NCAA Tournament. In my head, I was getting this…at some point.
Unfortunately from March 1 until today, there has been one day above 57 degrees where there hasn’t been rain. Of the handful of days that have creeped above 57, they’ve been pretty dramatic days of rain, wind, and even tornadoes. So basically, there has been one good day of weather over the last 40 and the low that day was 30 degrees, which means it was really just a handful of hours of nice weather. It’s been wet as fuck, cold as fuck, windy as fuck, and while I can tolerate all of that, I desperately wanted and arguably needed some spurts of good weather. It’s damn near mid April and its like I moved to fucking Minnesota. Make it stop. Seriously. I’m dying here.
Am I surprised I valued the California weather at $638 for the month? I actually thought it would be higher than February because the weather was basically equally as bad as February. However, after months of little to no rain in California, my former home state got a ton of rain in March and that narrowed the gap here.
How did the weather affect your month? I more or less didn’t allow the weather to affect my routine. The weather never really got THAT bad, as it stayed above 20 except for one night. Still though, I think the elongated winter just had me less motivated to go out and had be bundled up and less excited to start my day. It just got to me after awhile, since I foolishly expected some letup in March.
Joe’s breakdown
Total value: $620
Average California high temperature: (Irvine, CA) 68 degrees
Average Pennsylvania high temperature: (Harrisburg, PA) 45 degrees
Total days Pennsylvania weather was equal to or better than California weather: zero
Summary: It was a typical March in Pennsylvania – chilly, rainy, windy for most of the month, with a couple of nice days and a couple of downright wintry and gross days mixed in. Somewhat to my surprise, it was actually a bit chilly and rainy for a few days in California this month too, though not *as* chilly or *as* rainy as it typically is back easy.
This was a low key month with March Madness sucking up a couple weeks of my free time, and we only went out for a handful of days to watch the games. But hey, no shoveling, and we kept the windows open all month long. Can’t complain.
Am I surprised I valued the California weather at $620 for the month? Yes, because I thought it would be higher. There were eight days in March were I valued the California weather at $5 or less, which is actually down from the nine days in February (in a shorter month, mind you), and a hair higher than the seven in January. That’s been my major takeaway so far in the three months we’ve been doing this exercise – when it’s gorgeous out, you cannot beat California’s weather. But when there’s no precipitation back east, and it’s not freezing out…hell, it’s not a stretch to say there isn’t much difference if it’s in the 60s out here.
How did the weather affect your month? No major effects on me this month. I really didn’t cancel any plans or do anything outside *because* of the weather, but I did go out more because it was nice (and not totally shitty) outside. We also bought patio furniture (finally, after seven months) this month, and being able to lounge on the patio in the mornings or evenings before or after work was pretty awesome.
