Santa Barbara was named the #1 Best Place to the Live in the U.S. for the Weather in 2018 in a recent ranking by U.S. News & World Report.
According to the report, Santa Barbara offers fewer than 79 cloudy days per year, on average. The mean number of clear or partly cloudy days is 286, with an average of six days below freezing and three days above 90 degrees. Although I'm pretty sure we blew that last average out of the water in recent weeks.
Number 2 on the list is Salinas, California, lettuce capital of the world and home to John Steinbeck, just 230'ish miles north of Santa Barbara. The report stated that Salinas offers just six nights below freezing and three above 90 degrees, on average, throughout the year.
Number 3 was given to San Diego, and 4th was tied between San Francisco and San Jose, with 6th being Honolulu.
Clearly, it's the coastal California cities that dominated this report, to which any Californian would reply, "No, duh."
So congratulations Santa Barbara! This might be a hard honor to accept given the extreme heat we experienced this past week with the lack of air-conditioned buildings, but an honor nonetheless.