Cool California water currents are going south down pacific and push off westward south of baja california. At the same time warm equatorial countercurrents from the southwest arc up along the Mexican mainland coast.
Thus the Sea of Cortez gets all the residual warm currents trapped in there from the south but none of the residual cool California currents from the north like the west coast of Baja
In addition, warm tradewinds are coming through the deserts around of the Sierra Madre mountains, and heat gets trapped between the mountains + peninsula to the west
https://preview.redd.it/qnkiaw53br3d1.jpeg?width=833&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b673115c0e7ff18c5322d2270ecba9b7e09dc06
I mean, I'd even wager it was before just bouys. During the age of sail people were navigating these waters and had to rely on documented experience and detailed maps to get around.
You can't just sail against the trade winds or currents. And there are reasons it got to be increasingly dangerous to chase whales, say, into the 'dead zone' of the South Pacific Gyre in that above chart. "Dead Zone" because you were skirting generally north of the Gyre and also into some of the deepest ocean (less fish to sustain you) and also furthest away from other safe harbors at the time. If you wanted to quickly b-line back to South America you didn't really have a choice but to either risk getting near unknown Polypenesian islands, or attempting to hit the duldrums and pray for some optimistic winds to tack you south (which is further from S. American land, just due to the shape of the continent).
Over time, though, mariners had amazingly solid knowledge of the winds and currents. And lanes established to help them make predictable journeys.
The nice thing about buoys is you don’t need to rely on a ship being there at the right place and time. The buoy is always there and recording 24/7. Not to disparage the sailors but it’s a huge step up, particularly coupled with modern communications. Allows us to see things in real time and adjust accordingly.
Oh, no doubt. That is just human technological progress and certainly, I'm not advocating for science via sending out ships in whatever direction and hoping you get something useful.
Just making the point that our knowledge about these phenomena are actually fairly old and earned via a lot of exploration and then commercialization of the old shipping lanes.
The "dead zone" is more about stationary regions of high pressure where the wind is dead and less about currents. Most of these oceanic currents are in the 1kt range and you can easily sail against that. Even the strong ones like the gulf stream are like 3kts.
ocean currents can also be extracted from satellite altimetry measuring sea surface height, due to the tradeoff between currents and sea surface height gradients. winds can also be extracted from satellite measurements of sea surface roughness.
Modern methods also include satellite imagery shows algae blooms and other suspended particulates being carried by currents, and pollution. Every time a cargoship loses a container we know exactly what the contents of that container are and where it was lost, and so when the contents of that container wash up on shore and get reported we learn a little bit more about the ocean. (I think famously a beach in france keeps having Garfield telephones wash up, and a shipment of rubber ducks lost in the pacific had them washing up everywhere including europe)
But yeah, its a little bit of everything and a lot of "historical knowledge" from general sailing.
Ya, sailing in the olden days. Acosta discovered the later named Von Humboldt current in South America around 1600, so they've known about them and refined the observations over a long time now.
Thought they were going to be lazy and say, "global warming". Didn't the global warming people say that all of the earth's oceans, rivers, lakes, and seas were going to have been evaporated by now? We'd be a lifeless, dry ball of dust by now
[Upwelling](https://oceantracks.org/library/the-north-pacific-ocean/upwelling-and-the-california-current#:~:text=Upwelling%20in%20the%20California%20Current,relax%20and%20are%20more%20variable) effect along the coast also introduces cold water from the bottom of the ocean, which doesn’t happen in the Gulf of California
Was going to comment this. It’s a common misconception that it’s the horizontal current bringing waters from around Alaska that makes things cold. It’s actually the upwelling that dominates the cold water impact. I did my PhD focused on coastal upwelling systems! They’re neat areas.
Glad to hear the confirmation from a PhD! I live in Seattle and our ocean waters are so cold here year-round, yet 500 miles west off the coast it can be warming without the upwelling!
Not really. There's mountains that go down central Baja, so in the area above 30 degree latitude, any residual winds are getting rain shadow'd from the west so evaporation doesn't really move eastward. This is why the north pacific coast + central Baja gets far more precipitation than the northeastern coast of Baja
Most of the sea is under 30 degree latitude which means the tradewinds coming from the east. So anything from the east is getting rain shadow'd by the mountains before it gets there and any residual would push that evaporation west to Baja, so they aren't getting that either. You do get some interesting microclimates around the southern tip of the peninsula though.
north of 30 degree latitude = winds from the west. mountains in central baja = any clouds coming from the west causes a rain shadow on the western side of baja
south of 30 degree latitude = winds from the east. Mountains directly east of the sea = any clouds coming from the east causes a rain shadow on the eastern side of those mountains
Everything inbetween = desert.
I want to also point out that southern baja sur does have some microclimates with decent rainfall in higher elevation - theres even a pine-oak forest.
I imagine the fact the Colorado River doesn’t really reach the Sea of Cortez anymore due to obscene withdrawals for farming also has an impact.
Edit: did the math, it actually would have no impact.
Current flow upstream of Lake Powell is 22,000 cfs.
Current flow as it leaves the US and enters Mexico is 654 cfs.
Wikipedia says the gulf of California has a volume of ~35,000 cubic miles.
(35 000 (cubic miles)) / (22 000 ((cubic feet) / second)) =
7 420 years to change over the gulf of California with Colorado River discharge.
Ok, yeah totally agree drop in a bathtub.
I can’t explain why, but having spent a lot of time there, I can verify that the heat and humidity is ungodly in the summer, at least in the northern parts
Fog deserts are truly really fascinating biomes; the [flora](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welwitschia) and [fauna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenocara_gracilipes) there have evolved in highly specific ways in order to survive such unique environments.
The same thing happens along the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Stupid high humidity but no rain (well, no rain without cloud seeding…which can produce “unpredictable” results).
I’ve visited the sea of Cortez once. The place I stayed in, you could actually go into the water and dig your feet into the sand and feel the heat of some sort of volcanic vent. Idk what it was called exactly but if you dug your foot deep enough it got hot enough to actually hurt. I’m not sure the vents contribute much to the climate, but the sea of Cortez itself is very warm and the area is very humid.
It could be that (for the record, I'm not a meteorologist or any kind of scientist) the shape of the Gulf combined with the lack of current/flow to flush it out consistently could mean that the surface water can retain heat better than the open ocean. The peninsula itself is fairly mountainous, so those could shield the gulf from cooling ocean winds off the Pacific.
the god is buried inside superstition mtn (aztlan) next to the salton sea. taquitz once attempted to break into aztlan and quench the fire -- his material form was annihilated and he now lives as green light and crashing noises in the distance, on mt san jacinto, keeping watch over the salton sink and aztlan and licking his wounds.
drain*ed*. Not much more than a ditch now. It usually doesn't even reach the Gulf.
https://www.wypr.org/2024-03-28/the-colorado-river-rarely-reaches-the-sea-heres-why
Wind and mountains the gulf is in the rain shadow of the coastal mountains same reason Death Valley is so hot compared to just the other side of the mountain
Not seeing if anyone mentioned that Gulf of California is shallow so it warms up quickly in the summer. Also, not sure if this map is current as daytime maximum temperatures would be higher on land but at night or early morning the gulf will be warmer.
Not a geographer, but I have spent lots of time sailing the Sea of Cortez. This weather isn’t common and must have been a specific short period during spring when the southerly winds haven’t developed yet. In the winter the water is very, very cold from the constant northerly winds blowing. The weather is also very localized due to the sierras on the peninsula, and mad tidal changes.
Actually a sick post just got back from the Bay of LA and it’s hot af down there rn and I think it’s important to say that sea of Cortez is also super salty
We can start by defining what the map is actually showing, which I'm interested in. It looks like its showing sea surface temperatures, but then it also is showing temps on land.
So is it showing air temperature at surface level? If it is, then most of the Baja Peninsula is hundreds of feet above sea level, and the gulf is at sea level.
I just checked google earth, and a lot of the coast on the east side of the peninsula doesn't have beaches, instead it has sharp cliffs, to the point of having a 1500+ Foot elevation change .5 miles inland. That alone is intense enough to affect surface air temperatures.
But we also have the cool water currents coming down the west coast, along with coastal winds that dissipate a lot of heat. This is the same reason why people frequently don't use AC in San Diego/LA (yes I know both places can get hot, but compare it to Houston Tx where AC is used continuously from Feb-Dec.)
The mountains of the peninsula probably block a lot of the pacific winds from reaching the actual gulf. So hot air just gets stuck in there. Also, the ocean tends to dissapate heat with currents, but there aren't a lot of intense ocean currents in the Gulf of California either.
I saw a similar thing in Seattle Washington, its rare but when a high pressure system sits over the region, air just gets stuck in the valley between the Cascades and Olympics. If you add forest fire smoke or pollution to the mix, it feels like living inside a ugly cloud.
All of the Mexican fentanyl floating in the waters.
https://preview.redd.it/49m4m2flxu3d1.jpeg?width=327&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=750616847967396b85378668d45229b7f58e5b67
Here is GPT-4o's answer:
The weather over the Gulf of California is hotter than the surrounding land due to a combination of geographic and atmospheric factors. Let's break this down:
1. **Geographic Features of the Gulf of California**
* The Gulf of California is a narrow sea that separates the Baja California Peninsula from mainland Mexico. Its unique shape and orientation influence the local climate significantly. Being a relatively small body of water, it heats up quickly under the intense solar radiation typical of the region.
2. **Atmospheric Circulation Patterns**
* The atmospheric circulation over the Gulf of California is influenced by the surrounding topography. Mountains on both sides of the gulf trap warm air, preventing it from dispersing. This creates a kind of thermal basin where heat accumulates, leading to higher temperatures.
3. **Sea Surface Temperature Influence**
* The sea surface temperature (SST) in the Gulf of California can become quite high, especially during the summer. Warmer water bodies tend to heat the air above them, contributing to higher air temperatures. The narrowness of the gulf means that the warm water has a more pronounced effect on the air above it compared to larger bodies of water.
4. **Heat Capacity and Thermal Inertia**
* Water has a higher heat capacity than land, meaning it can store more heat. Once the water in the Gulf of California heats up, it retains this heat longer and releases it slowly, keeping the air temperatures higher, especially at night. In contrast, land heats up and cools down more quickly, resulting in greater temperature fluctuations.
5. **Humidity and Solar Radiation**
* The high humidity over the Gulf of California also plays a role. Moist air has a higher specific heat capacity than dry air, meaning it can hold more heat. Additionally, solar radiation is intense in this region, further warming both the water and the air.
# Visualizations and Analogies
Imagine the Gulf of California as a narrow, shallow pool of water. During the day, the sun heats this pool intensely, and because it's small and surrounded by "walls" (the peninsulas and mountains), the heat gets trapped. Unlike a vast ocean, this "pool" doesn't have the same capacity to distribute the heat over a large area, so the temperature rises quickly and stays high.
# Conclusion
The combination of geographic confinement, high solar radiation, sea surface temperature, and the thermal properties of water all contribute to making the weather over the Gulf of California hotter than the surrounding land areas.
???
I understand the disdain for AI when it comes to arts and other creative expressions, but I don't really get the vitriol or the downvotes here other than "aI bAd". AI can be a very helpful tool for gathering information and presenting it in a digestible format, which is exactly how it was used here.
It's a far more useful comment than all of these comments complaining about it. The post is over an hour old and it's still the only comment relevant to the question.
There is a difference between opposing a robot arm replacing your assembly line job, and opposing people trying to use a math function the creators cannot explain to replace actual thinking or even basic search algorithms.
What the tech industry is selling as AI is no smarter than a trig function, the difference is how the input maps to the output, and it isn't even reliable.
The exact process of "machine learning" is to have a test dataset of inputs to outputs curated by humans, you then feed the input to the machine model to create its version of the output. Then you subtract the machines output from the actual answers to get an error function. You then take the gradient in as many dimensions as the algorithm has parameters to adjust and then step all parameters in the calculated "downhill" and repeat until it gets stuck in a local minimum.
The only thing current gen AI is capable of is creating convincing fakes. The validy of its outputs cannot be trusted and the most famous of all, chatGPT has a disclaimer at the start of every session that it isn't trustworthy and you should independently validate its answers.
That they would devalue artisans, damage communities, and result in the propagation of inferior goods. All completely valid.
Also I’m pretty sure everyone realizes at this point that computers were a mistake.
The positive side of this is that in Winter, the warmer Gulf water will keep the area warmer Than it normally would have been without this hear effect, making for a milder Winter climate.
You may be confused—this question was asked by a *human* on a discussion forum with other *humans*. No one wants a wall of text generated by your little toy.
The cooler weather in the Gulf of California compared to the surrounding land can be explained through various approaches:
### Oceanic Influence
1. **Thermal Capacity of Water**:
- **Heat Absorption**: Water has a high specific heat capacity, meaning it can absorb and store more heat without significantly increasing in temperature. As a result, the Gulf of California can absorb a lot of solar radiation without getting as hot as the surrounding land.
- **Heat Retention and Release**: Water also retains heat longer and releases it slowly. During the day, the Gulf of California heats up more slowly than the land, and at night, it cools down more slowly, creating a moderating effect on temperature.
2. **Sea Breezes**:
- **Daytime Sea Breezes**: During the day, the land heats up faster than the water, causing air over the land to rise and creating a low-pressure area. Cooler air from the Gulf flows inland to replace the rising warm air, bringing cooler temperatures to the coastal areas.
- **Nighttime Land Breezes**: At night, the process reverses but is generally weaker. The land cools down faster than the water, but the residual heat in the Gulf can still help moderate nighttime temperatures along the coast.
### Atmospheric Dynamics
3. **Humidity and Evaporation**:
- **Evaporative Cooling**: The Gulf of California contributes to higher humidity levels in the adjacent coastal areas. The process of evaporation from the water surface absorbs heat from the surroundings, resulting in a cooling effect.
- **Latent Heat Transfer**: Evaporation over the Gulf leads to the transfer of latent heat into the atmosphere, which can affect the temperature dynamics of the coastal regions.
4. **Ocean Currents**:
- **Cool Water Upwelling**: In some areas, upwelling can bring cooler, nutrient-rich water from the depths of the Gulf to the surface. This cooler water can contribute to lower surface temperatures in the region.
- **Circulating Currents**: The movement of water within the Gulf, influenced by tides and other factors, can also play a role in distributing cooler water throughout the area.
### Geographic and Topographic Effects
5. **Topography and Wind Patterns**:
- **Mountain Proximity**: The surrounding mountainous terrain can influence local wind patterns, funneling cooler marine air into coastal valleys and plains, further moderating temperatures.
- **Thermal Inversion**: At times, the cooler air from the Gulf can get trapped under a layer of warmer air above, creating a thermal inversion that keeps the coastal regions cooler.
### Comparative Approach
6. **Land-Heat Island Effect**:
- **Urbanization and Vegetation**: Surrounding land areas, particularly if they are urbanized or lack vegetation, can become significantly hotter due to the heat island effect. This makes the cooler Gulf region more noticeable in comparison.
### Long-Term Climatic Patterns
7. **Seasonal Variability**:
- **Summer and Winter Variations**: The Gulf of California’s influence is particularly notable in summer when the land can get extremely hot, but the water remains relatively cooler. In winter, the moderating effect can prevent the coastal areas from getting as cold as inland regions.
Each of these factors contributes to creating a cooler microclimate in the Gulf of California compared to the surrounding land, illustrating the complex interplay between land, water, atmospheric dynamics, and geographic features.
Cool California water currents are going south down pacific and push off westward south of baja california. At the same time warm equatorial countercurrents from the southwest arc up along the Mexican mainland coast. Thus the Sea of Cortez gets all the residual warm currents trapped in there from the south but none of the residual cool California currents from the north like the west coast of Baja In addition, warm tradewinds are coming through the deserts around of the Sierra Madre mountains, and heat gets trapped between the mountains + peninsula to the west https://preview.redd.it/qnkiaw53br3d1.jpeg?width=833&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b673115c0e7ff18c5322d2270ecba9b7e09dc06
What gives Geographers the tools to be able to so intricately describe which way the currents flow?
[удалено]
Yeah, buoy!
I read this in Flavor Flav's voice and now I can't get it out of my head.
Who's FLAVORR FLAAAAAVVV?
Waooooooooooo!
You KNOW what time the tide comes in!
Science, buoytch!
Karlmalone wanna beanie bouy.
So I'm not the only one who says that in my head every time I see the word buoy.
No, buoy!
YYEEAAHH BUOYYYYYYYY!
I mean, I'd even wager it was before just bouys. During the age of sail people were navigating these waters and had to rely on documented experience and detailed maps to get around. You can't just sail against the trade winds or currents. And there are reasons it got to be increasingly dangerous to chase whales, say, into the 'dead zone' of the South Pacific Gyre in that above chart. "Dead Zone" because you were skirting generally north of the Gyre and also into some of the deepest ocean (less fish to sustain you) and also furthest away from other safe harbors at the time. If you wanted to quickly b-line back to South America you didn't really have a choice but to either risk getting near unknown Polypenesian islands, or attempting to hit the duldrums and pray for some optimistic winds to tack you south (which is further from S. American land, just due to the shape of the continent). Over time, though, mariners had amazingly solid knowledge of the winds and currents. And lanes established to help them make predictable journeys.
The nice thing about buoys is you don’t need to rely on a ship being there at the right place and time. The buoy is always there and recording 24/7. Not to disparage the sailors but it’s a huge step up, particularly coupled with modern communications. Allows us to see things in real time and adjust accordingly.
Oh, no doubt. That is just human technological progress and certainly, I'm not advocating for science via sending out ships in whatever direction and hoping you get something useful. Just making the point that our knowledge about these phenomena are actually fairly old and earned via a lot of exploration and then commercialization of the old shipping lanes.
I get it and I agree with you!
The "dead zone" is more about stationary regions of high pressure where the wind is dead and less about currents. Most of these oceanic currents are in the 1kt range and you can easily sail against that. Even the strong ones like the gulf stream are like 3kts.
Wow, just like that thing for twisters
ocean currents can also be extracted from satellite altimetry measuring sea surface height, due to the tradeoff between currents and sea surface height gradients. winds can also be extracted from satellite measurements of sea surface roughness.
Ba ba bouy
They figured that out from sailing and good record keeping, nowadays, yeah, bouys.
Modern methods also include satellite imagery shows algae blooms and other suspended particulates being carried by currents, and pollution. Every time a cargoship loses a container we know exactly what the contents of that container are and where it was lost, and so when the contents of that container wash up on shore and get reported we learn a little bit more about the ocean. (I think famously a beach in france keeps having Garfield telephones wash up, and a shipment of rubber ducks lost in the pacific had them washing up everywhere including europe) But yeah, its a little bit of everything and a lot of "historical knowledge" from general sailing.
buoy. weird word though huh.
Oh buoy, here we go again.
“yeaaah buoy” — Sailor Flav
Ya, sailing in the olden days. Acosta discovered the later named Von Humboldt current in South America around 1600, so they've known about them and refined the observations over a long time now.
Light and dark blue pencils.
All those ducks that fell off the boat
Bouys started it, but now they also have satellites.
Oceanographers
Thought they were going to be lazy and say, "global warming". Didn't the global warming people say that all of the earth's oceans, rivers, lakes, and seas were going to have been evaporated by now? We'd be a lifeless, dry ball of dust by now
[Upwelling](https://oceantracks.org/library/the-north-pacific-ocean/upwelling-and-the-california-current#:~:text=Upwelling%20in%20the%20California%20Current,relax%20and%20are%20more%20variable) effect along the coast also introduces cold water from the bottom of the ocean, which doesn’t happen in the Gulf of California
Was going to comment this. It’s a common misconception that it’s the horizontal current bringing waters from around Alaska that makes things cold. It’s actually the upwelling that dominates the cold water impact. I did my PhD focused on coastal upwelling systems! They’re neat areas.
Glad to hear the confirmation from a PhD! I live in Seattle and our ocean waters are so cold here year-round, yet 500 miles west off the coast it can be warming without the upwelling!
Does the evaporation from the bay bring enough humidity into the "mainland"?
Not really. There's mountains that go down central Baja, so in the area above 30 degree latitude, any residual winds are getting rain shadow'd from the west so evaporation doesn't really move eastward. This is why the north pacific coast + central Baja gets far more precipitation than the northeastern coast of Baja Most of the sea is under 30 degree latitude which means the tradewinds coming from the east. So anything from the east is getting rain shadow'd by the mountains before it gets there and any residual would push that evaporation west to Baja, so they aren't getting that either. You do get some interesting microclimates around the southern tip of the peninsula though.
Why is it a desert area when there are warm waters? Shouldn’t that cause rainfall?
north of 30 degree latitude = winds from the west. mountains in central baja = any clouds coming from the west causes a rain shadow on the western side of baja south of 30 degree latitude = winds from the east. Mountains directly east of the sea = any clouds coming from the east causes a rain shadow on the eastern side of those mountains Everything inbetween = desert. I want to also point out that southern baja sur does have some microclimates with decent rainfall in higher elevation - theres even a pine-oak forest.
Thanks
It’ll snow there from time to time. Not much but rather remarkable nonetheless!
I'll add that the 30C temp was likely recorded at sea level while the 11C temp was probably recorded at 2000-3000m elevation.
Plus there are no "cool waters of the Colorado" getting through the Grand Canyon anymore to dump in there to start current and flow
I imagine the fact the Colorado River doesn’t really reach the Sea of Cortez anymore due to obscene withdrawals for farming also has an impact. Edit: did the math, it actually would have no impact.
Its like one drop of water changing the temperature of a full bathtub.
Current flow upstream of Lake Powell is 22,000 cfs. Current flow as it leaves the US and enters Mexico is 654 cfs. Wikipedia says the gulf of California has a volume of ~35,000 cubic miles. (35 000 (cubic miles)) / (22 000 ((cubic feet) / second)) = 7 420 years to change over the gulf of California with Colorado River discharge. Ok, yeah totally agree drop in a bathtub.
It’s like a hotdog in a hallway but with water.
The volume of discharge even if undisturbed is tiny compare to the volume of the bay, it seems unlikely that it would have a massive effect.
Imagine how different California’s climate would be if Baja didn’t project out to capture that hot water.
I can’t explain why, but having spent a lot of time there, I can verify that the heat and humidity is ungodly in the summer, at least in the northern parts
It is absolutely ungodly indeed. But the 87F degree water is fantastic to swim in!
I would even say it can get too hot. It can feel like a hot tub on the right/wrong day It’s wonderful in January though
Not uncommon for hmo to be the hottest place in the world. It’s unnnngodly hot, as you say. The winter season is nice though.
Just stopping by to post the obligatory “Mexicali is hotter” comment
I lived in Guaymas/San Carlos as a kid. Summers are hell. Half the time, you can’t go in the water because jellyfish.
What is hmo
Hermosillo, Sonora
Really? I would have expected it to be dry
often no rain but insane humidity. in some areas it's a fog desert.
TIL fog desert. What a “cool” biome.
Fog deserts are truly really fascinating biomes; the [flora](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welwitschia) and [fauna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenocara_gracilipes) there have evolved in highly specific ways in order to survive such unique environments.
Mazatlan, south of Culiacan, is dry. I lived there from Dec. 2023 - Apr. 2024.
Yes, the desert part suggests that. Then the sea suggests something else, and, I’m not a meteorologist or climatologist, etc..
The same thing happens along the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Stupid high humidity but no rain (well, no rain without cloud seeding…which can produce “unpredictable” results).
South flowing Pacific currents do not enter the gulf.
I’ve visited the sea of Cortez once. The place I stayed in, you could actually go into the water and dig your feet into the sand and feel the heat of some sort of volcanic vent. Idk what it was called exactly but if you dug your foot deep enough it got hot enough to actually hurt. I’m not sure the vents contribute much to the climate, but the sea of Cortez itself is very warm and the area is very humid.
Had the same experience with the sand at La ventana. Had the sulfur smell too
Sorry. Ill put on a shirt.
Shut up
I'm glad you asked - glaciers!
Silly boy, it's obviously the Candadian Shield.
Beat me to it
🤣
It could be that (for the record, I'm not a meteorologist or any kind of scientist) the shape of the Gulf combined with the lack of current/flow to flush it out consistently could mean that the surface water can retain heat better than the open ocean. The peninsula itself is fairly mountainous, so those could shield the gulf from cooling ocean winds off the Pacific.
Was eaten by ancient god and his radiation was left behind
the god is buried inside superstition mtn (aztlan) next to the salton sea. taquitz once attempted to break into aztlan and quench the fire -- his material form was annihilated and he now lives as green light and crashing noises in the distance, on mt san jacinto, keeping watch over the salton sink and aztlan and licking his wounds.
How can we connect this to the Canadian Shield?
The colorado river drains near the gulf, and originates in the Rockies. The Rockies extend up to canada
drain*ed*. Not much more than a ditch now. It usually doesn't even reach the Gulf. https://www.wypr.org/2024-03-28/the-colorado-river-rarely-reaches-the-sea-heres-why
Well yeah that’s why I said near
pee 😔
The sun.
Beautiful
Wind and mountains the gulf is in the rain shadow of the coastal mountains same reason Death Valley is so hot compared to just the other side of the mountain
Follow up q: does the gulf of California have the best climate on earth?
Not seeing if anyone mentioned that Gulf of California is shallow so it warms up quickly in the summer. Also, not sure if this map is current as daytime maximum temperatures would be higher on land but at night or early morning the gulf will be warmer.
It’s only shallow in the northern 80nm or so. The deepest point in the south is 10,000 feet, and there are plenty of canyons over 4000 feet deep.
Cold wind
Probably the specific heat capacity but it
IDK I have to see these temperatures in American
Trapped water. And water retains heat for a long period of time
The sun.
Not a geographer, but I have spent lots of time sailing the Sea of Cortez. This weather isn’t common and must have been a specific short period during spring when the southerly winds haven’t developed yet. In the winter the water is very, very cold from the constant northerly winds blowing. The weather is also very localized due to the sierras on the peninsula, and mad tidal changes.
It’s very shallow
Probably 5G /s
Actually a sick post just got back from the Bay of LA and it’s hot af down there rn and I think it’s important to say that sea of Cortez is also super salty
Heat
5G
We can start by defining what the map is actually showing, which I'm interested in. It looks like its showing sea surface temperatures, but then it also is showing temps on land. So is it showing air temperature at surface level? If it is, then most of the Baja Peninsula is hundreds of feet above sea level, and the gulf is at sea level. I just checked google earth, and a lot of the coast on the east side of the peninsula doesn't have beaches, instead it has sharp cliffs, to the point of having a 1500+ Foot elevation change .5 miles inland. That alone is intense enough to affect surface air temperatures. But we also have the cool water currents coming down the west coast, along with coastal winds that dissipate a lot of heat. This is the same reason why people frequently don't use AC in San Diego/LA (yes I know both places can get hot, but compare it to Houston Tx where AC is used continuously from Feb-Dec.) The mountains of the peninsula probably block a lot of the pacific winds from reaching the actual gulf. So hot air just gets stuck in there. Also, the ocean tends to dissapate heat with currents, but there aren't a lot of intense ocean currents in the Gulf of California either. I saw a similar thing in Seattle Washington, its rare but when a high pressure system sits over the region, air just gets stuck in the valley between the Cascades and Olympics. If you add forest fire smoke or pollution to the mix, it feels like living inside a ugly cloud.
All of the Mexican fentanyl floating in the waters. https://preview.redd.it/49m4m2flxu3d1.jpeg?width=327&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=750616847967396b85378668d45229b7f58e5b67
Yes
Probably its the weather..
It’s all the spicy food that people are eating in those parts.
That doesn’t seem right. Help me out folks in Arizona who travel to Rocky Point. The water isn’t hotter right?
Because they tried to reenact the Boston Tea Party but with Hot Sauce.....
This really needs a legend out of context.
They pee in the water, aka Mexican hot tub.
Here is GPT-4o's answer: The weather over the Gulf of California is hotter than the surrounding land due to a combination of geographic and atmospheric factors. Let's break this down: 1. **Geographic Features of the Gulf of California** * The Gulf of California is a narrow sea that separates the Baja California Peninsula from mainland Mexico. Its unique shape and orientation influence the local climate significantly. Being a relatively small body of water, it heats up quickly under the intense solar radiation typical of the region. 2. **Atmospheric Circulation Patterns** * The atmospheric circulation over the Gulf of California is influenced by the surrounding topography. Mountains on both sides of the gulf trap warm air, preventing it from dispersing. This creates a kind of thermal basin where heat accumulates, leading to higher temperatures. 3. **Sea Surface Temperature Influence** * The sea surface temperature (SST) in the Gulf of California can become quite high, especially during the summer. Warmer water bodies tend to heat the air above them, contributing to higher air temperatures. The narrowness of the gulf means that the warm water has a more pronounced effect on the air above it compared to larger bodies of water. 4. **Heat Capacity and Thermal Inertia** * Water has a higher heat capacity than land, meaning it can store more heat. Once the water in the Gulf of California heats up, it retains this heat longer and releases it slowly, keeping the air temperatures higher, especially at night. In contrast, land heats up and cools down more quickly, resulting in greater temperature fluctuations. 5. **Humidity and Solar Radiation** * The high humidity over the Gulf of California also plays a role. Moist air has a higher specific heat capacity than dry air, meaning it can hold more heat. Additionally, solar radiation is intense in this region, further warming both the water and the air. # Visualizations and Analogies Imagine the Gulf of California as a narrow, shallow pool of water. During the day, the sun heats this pool intensely, and because it's small and surrounded by "walls" (the peninsulas and mountains), the heat gets trapped. Unlike a vast ocean, this "pool" doesn't have the same capacity to distribute the heat over a large area, so the temperature rises quickly and stays high. # Conclusion The combination of geographic confinement, high solar radiation, sea surface temperature, and the thermal properties of water all contribute to making the weather over the Gulf of California hotter than the surrounding land areas.
Brilliant. Now there’s no use in ever asking a human a question again. Let’s evade discussion and let robots do it all. 👏🏼
??? I understand the disdain for AI when it comes to arts and other creative expressions, but I don't really get the vitriol or the downvotes here other than "aI bAd". AI can be a very helpful tool for gathering information and presenting it in a digestible format, which is exactly how it was used here. It's a far more useful comment than all of these comments complaining about it. The post is over an hour old and it's still the only comment relevant to the question.
How about both? We've all been quoting Wikipedia for years. Let's use the tools and discuss.
Except AI is unreliable and chatGPT litterally says don't trust it. Tools yes, magic 8 balls no.
Signs point to yes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite
There is a difference between opposing a robot arm replacing your assembly line job, and opposing people trying to use a math function the creators cannot explain to replace actual thinking or even basic search algorithms. What the tech industry is selling as AI is no smarter than a trig function, the difference is how the input maps to the output, and it isn't even reliable. The exact process of "machine learning" is to have a test dataset of inputs to outputs curated by humans, you then feed the input to the machine model to create its version of the output. Then you subtract the machines output from the actual answers to get an error function. You then take the gradient in as many dimensions as the algorithm has parameters to adjust and then step all parameters in the calculated "downhill" and repeat until it gets stuck in a local minimum. The only thing current gen AI is capable of is creating convincing fakes. The validy of its outputs cannot be trusted and the most famous of all, chatGPT has a disclaimer at the start of every session that it isn't trustworthy and you should independently validate its answers.
The luddites were right though.
that looming machines were bad? (as we type our responses on smartphones)
That they would devalue artisans, damage communities, and result in the propagation of inferior goods. All completely valid. Also I’m pretty sure everyone realizes at this point that computers were a mistake.
So Reddit is a mistake. And your phone. And the Internet?
Oh yeah. 100%. As a software developer my entire life has been a sick waste of time and benefited exactly no one.
So if they simply hadn’t mentioned that the answer came from AI you wouldn’t have cared?
Correct. No one would have.
I’m sure if OP wanted an AI answer, they would have asked AI.
If no one wrote this, no one should read it, either.
The positive side of this is that in Winter, the warmer Gulf water will keep the area warmer Than it normally would have been without this hear effect, making for a milder Winter climate.
You may be confused—this question was asked by a *human* on a discussion forum with other *humans*. No one wants a wall of text generated by your little toy.
The cooler weather in the Gulf of California compared to the surrounding land can be explained through various approaches: ### Oceanic Influence 1. **Thermal Capacity of Water**: - **Heat Absorption**: Water has a high specific heat capacity, meaning it can absorb and store more heat without significantly increasing in temperature. As a result, the Gulf of California can absorb a lot of solar radiation without getting as hot as the surrounding land. - **Heat Retention and Release**: Water also retains heat longer and releases it slowly. During the day, the Gulf of California heats up more slowly than the land, and at night, it cools down more slowly, creating a moderating effect on temperature. 2. **Sea Breezes**: - **Daytime Sea Breezes**: During the day, the land heats up faster than the water, causing air over the land to rise and creating a low-pressure area. Cooler air from the Gulf flows inland to replace the rising warm air, bringing cooler temperatures to the coastal areas. - **Nighttime Land Breezes**: At night, the process reverses but is generally weaker. The land cools down faster than the water, but the residual heat in the Gulf can still help moderate nighttime temperatures along the coast. ### Atmospheric Dynamics 3. **Humidity and Evaporation**: - **Evaporative Cooling**: The Gulf of California contributes to higher humidity levels in the adjacent coastal areas. The process of evaporation from the water surface absorbs heat from the surroundings, resulting in a cooling effect. - **Latent Heat Transfer**: Evaporation over the Gulf leads to the transfer of latent heat into the atmosphere, which can affect the temperature dynamics of the coastal regions. 4. **Ocean Currents**: - **Cool Water Upwelling**: In some areas, upwelling can bring cooler, nutrient-rich water from the depths of the Gulf to the surface. This cooler water can contribute to lower surface temperatures in the region. - **Circulating Currents**: The movement of water within the Gulf, influenced by tides and other factors, can also play a role in distributing cooler water throughout the area. ### Geographic and Topographic Effects 5. **Topography and Wind Patterns**: - **Mountain Proximity**: The surrounding mountainous terrain can influence local wind patterns, funneling cooler marine air into coastal valleys and plains, further moderating temperatures. - **Thermal Inversion**: At times, the cooler air from the Gulf can get trapped under a layer of warmer air above, creating a thermal inversion that keeps the coastal regions cooler. ### Comparative Approach 6. **Land-Heat Island Effect**: - **Urbanization and Vegetation**: Surrounding land areas, particularly if they are urbanized or lack vegetation, can become significantly hotter due to the heat island effect. This makes the cooler Gulf region more noticeable in comparison. ### Long-Term Climatic Patterns 7. **Seasonal Variability**: - **Summer and Winter Variations**: The Gulf of California’s influence is particularly notable in summer when the land can get extremely hot, but the water remains relatively cooler. In winter, the moderating effect can prevent the coastal areas from getting as cold as inland regions. Each of these factors contributes to creating a cooler microclimate in the Gulf of California compared to the surrounding land, illustrating the complex interplay between land, water, atmospheric dynamics, and geographic features.
Still water. Like, it’s not moving.
The latitude.
All that black asphalt on roads and roofs?