Where is the best camping along the Washington Coast?

Why is warmer on the Washington coast?

• Why is it almost always warmer on the Washington coast than the northern California coast during the summer? Average June/July/August temperatures for: Crescent City, CA 63/65/66 La Push, WA 64/68/69 Today it is going to be 70 in La Push while in Crescent City the projected high is only 65. They are both on the Pacific Coast, and wouldn't the waters at a more northerly latitude be cooler and thus keep temperatures cooler on the Washington coast? To the east of both there are mountain ranges, and the inland places experience much warmer temperatures, but why is it different for the coastal regions?

• Answer:

  The quick answer is that the water temperature is in fact warmer near La Push than near Crescent City. Here's a map for a couple days ago of surface water temperatures: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/data/washngtn.c.gif There could be a number a reasons for this difference in temperatures--currents, upwelling, depth of water, and so on. If you look at the Pacific coast, it "bends" to the west around N. California, then back to the East as you go North. It's possible that the cold California current just doesn't get as close to the region of the coast that is bent to the East. Just a guess--maybe the currents and their proximity are influenced by the shape of the coast. Another factor could be fog--which place gets more of it? Again, this could be due to a number of factors. Finally, I'm not fully convinced that the differences in your numbers are that meaningful. As you mention, if you go inland it warms up a lot. There may be smaller variations, even within a city, that could skew results a lot. I know that in San Francisco, for example, different parts of the city are sunnier, windier, etc., and you can get pretty big differences in temperature.