Learn about the Marine Layer that predominantly affects those on the west coast of the United States in Southern California during the summertime. Subscribe for weekly videos: Mr. Weather’s World is a weekly video series bringing you interesting and reliable information about the Earth Sciences, Space Weather, and Climate Change. Tune in each week for exciting new content with host and meteorologist Curt Silverwood (Millersville University Alum).
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Edited with: Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Character Animator, and Audition.
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May gray or June Gloom, what many Californians call the heavy fog and low level stratus clouds that form and contribute to altered temperatures for days or weeks at a time, mostly during the summer.
The Marine Layer represents a difference between cool, moist air and a warmer air mass. In the United States, we often see the effects of the Marine Layer along the central and southern coasts of California.
Water on the west coast moves from the Gulf of Alaska causing surface temperatures on the California coast to average 30 degrees cooler than areas at the same latitude off the east coast that are warmer due to the Gulf Stream.
Usually, air temperature decreases with height, however in this scenario, two processes conflict. Cooling of surface air and warming of upper level air which results in the formation of a temperature inversion. Where air warms with height. The air below the inversion is called the Marine Layer and is cool enough where fog and low clouds form.
Depth of the marine layer depends on large-scale weather patterns aloft. Downward motion from upper-level highs can squash a marine layer and keep it confined to the coast, while inland temperatures remain high. A weakening high-pressure overhead may cause the marine layer to move further inland and lower inland temperatures. Upward motion in the upper atmosphere may force the marine layer inland only to be blocked by tall coastal mountains. Interior valleys will have slightly lower temperatures due to the upward motion of air. Strong lifting at high altitude can deepen the marine layer enough allowing cold marine air to spill over coastal mountains to inland valleys.
This type of temperature change due to the marine layer can cause significant changes in temperatures during the summer in areas like the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys of California.
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