re: #209 austin_blue

Rainfall in San Diego is 24.6” per year.

I don’t know where you got those figures, but even the top of Mt. Palomar doesn’t get that much rain.

Near the ocean the long term rainfall averages a bit over 9” per year. That is why this is a desert. Foothills maybe a inch or two or so more but it is hotter here so the soil dries out more quickly. In the mountains there is enough rain for forest growth above about 3000 feet.

The rainfall increases as one goes north. LA gets a couple of more inches of rain, then by Santa Barbara a bit more. Heading south one gets to the middle of Baja where it is possible to go an entire year without rain, then as one continues toward the tropics rainfall starts to increase.

We are indeed a desert, a coastal desert as it is called.

That is why everyone wanted to live here - sunshine, no rain, not too hot, not too cold.

But the climate that makes each day so pleasant here is not able to support the human lives. We exist here only because we import 2/3rds of our water, and import our staples foods (and we used to export luxury foods like avocado and citrus but a great deal of farming has fallen to housing development.)