Comment by whalesalad | Hacker News Reader

Comment by whalesalad | Hacker News Reader

The experience here in Orange County over the last few months has been nuts.

Being able to hang out down near the ocean and see the San Gabriel mountains just decked out in snow is surreal: https://i.redd.it/kueaye5p6si21.jpg

Another photo: https://i.redd.it/vy7dlavrh0f21.jpg

Anaheim hills, an area that rarely gets snowed on: https://i.redd.it/trbf198kb6i21.jpg

Then we roll right into the poppy/wildflower superbloom which has been bonkers: https://weather.com/travel/news/2019-03-13-super-bloom-flowe...

The blackstar canyon waterfall is LIT! https://i.redd.it/4bq8v71ff7j21.jpg

Last but not least we are smack dab in the middle of an epic butterfly migration, https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2019/03/08/why-are-there-so...

Driving down the 73 toll road yesterday I think I drove through about 300 butterflies, at least. They just kinda flop over the car, none of them hit me. It was like driving through a butterfly hail storm.

This place sucks a lot of the time with all of the congestion and traffic, heat, smog, high cost of living etc... but times like this really make you stop and appreciate how beautiful it is.

> This place sucks a lot of the time with all of the congestion and traffic, heat, smog, high cost of living etc... but times like this really make you stop and appreciate how beautiful it is.

That's how I feel every day here

I felt so sad that the butterfly's habit was destroyed by so many people here.

I'm in Foothill Ranch. My last two runs, since the Painted Lady butterflies have shown up, have been so fascinating. They're like leaves on the wind. I sat out back this evening and just watched them fly by. Thousands of them. It's such an incredible sight, it's like something out of a movie and it's very hard to put in to words the exact experience.

Any info on the camera(s) used for those first two reddit photos?

Here are some of the links with backstory, https://www.reddit.com/r/orangecounty/comments/auqhxn/a_uniq... && https://www.reddit.com/r/orangecounty/comments/atlxgp/snow_j... && https://www.reddit.com/r/orangecounty/comments/anvflj/anothe...

so beautiful. thanks for sharing

I thought California. Has the best climate in the country?

California is a big state. It has almost all the subtropical climates in it somewhere. https://www.touristmaker.com/climate/california-climate-zone...

It does and it doesn't. It's a huge state... parts of it are lush redwood forests, other parts are literally some of the lowest/hottest/dryest places on earth (death valley). Depends on where you are and what time of the year it is.

Along the coast and in some mountain areas it's perfect. Otherwise it's a f...ing desert.

I dig the desert. It’s nice to escape to e.g. Joshua Tree.

Later this summer I’ll be hiking Mt. Whitney, and will swing through Death Valley on the way home. 15k altitude change in a few hours.

Try the cactus to clouds hike.

Well, it's not all just desert; that's more in the south. In the middle it's mostly farmland (in fact, rather excellent farmland, thanks to the combination of good soil, plenty of sunshine, temperate weather, and - the recent droughts notwithstanding - decent water availability; there's a reason why California is the primary source of quite a few fruits and vegetables for the world, let alone the US), and in the north it's mostly forest.

It does but most of california has been destroyed by pollution, toxic waste and trash.

"Most"

No, that's just my home, Redwood City. We don't have A/C or a house fan, and the need for heat is fairly minimal, relatively speaking. (It's been a cold winter, though, I think it was 36f this morning!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwood_City,_California#Sloga...

Hello fellow RWC dweller!

Can confirm, don't need much AC or Heat year round.

Not even close.

Right along the coast is great. For example, Venice is very nice. Los Angeles itself is mostly too hot.

If you think cool temperatures are more comfortable, then San Francisco is great.

It does. Given that everyone has their own idea of 'best', California has climates that span desert to rain forest and pretty much everything in between.

As long as you locate to the area that most closely approximates your personal definition of 'best' you win.

I didn't realize that temperate rainforest go all the way down to the NW of California. Coming from Seattle, WA that's pretty cool. (the more you know). :-)

I've half-joked in the past that the Pacific Northwest starts on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge. It really is true that by the time you're a couple hours north on the coast, though, it's a pretty profound difference: foggier, rainier, cooler but moderate (i.e., lower highs but higher lows).

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