Edit: Context behind this question is because my parents always tell me to shut the windows all the way and I kinda feel like I’m suffocating… literally… (it’s Winter here)
Like I just struggle to breathe with windows closed…
So I’m just curious, how do y’all not suffocate while trying to keep house warm and spend less on heating?
I always have a window cracked open in my room, but SoCal coastal weather is best in the world year round. There are few locations with deep water upwelling AND onshore flow atmospheric patterns. Of those, there is only one other location, in Peru, where it is also a temperate desert.
My weather is the same but I live on the first floor on a very busy Los Angeles street, so opening the windows lets in too much unfiltered grit and smog. I do step out onto the balcony daily to care for my plants and feed the birds, so some air gets in then.
mediterrenean climate, california, chile, perth, S africa,etc.
I’m in a microclimate that is even more unique than most of SoCal. You would have to visit to really understand it. I would not have believed it until I moved here. The temp where I live is 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit different than the surrounding area even just a few miles away. It only exists within a mile or so of the ocean. Riding a bike everywhere for years was quite fun because the weather always gets better the closer I get to home. It could be in the low 40’s F at night in Irvine, but it will be 55-60 F in San Clemente in the winter. It may be nearly 100 F in Mission Viejo in Summer, but it will still be 75 F in San Clemente. It has to do with the water, mountains, and how this area is situated at the edge of the LA Basin. It causes the wind patterns to be favorable here across both major regional weather patterns. If you go diving here, it also becomes obvious. There are three major thermoclines even at recreational diving depths and the first one hits hard at just a couple meters down. The cold water is why there are never hurricanes here. Any disturbances of the surface mixes the thermoclines and prevents building strong storms. When the air gets too hot, this area is covered in a marine layer at night because of the water temperature and that is what keeps it much cooler. San Clemente is where that phenomenon starts. There are actually cheesy little tourist shirts sold about the place in Peru that is supposedly the only other location with the same microclimate in the world.