PS--I am assuming, with all the possible failure implicit in that word, that the difference between the temperature in, say, Sacremento and the temperature in the mountains in December could be as much as 40 degrees. That is, the mountains could be 40 degrees colder than Sacremento. Am I right?
I've never lived in Sacramento, but if you mean the difference in the weather there and the Sierra, then yeah, quite a difference. It's at sea level in a river basin/delta, and the average high in the winter is the low 50s, and Donner Pass, for example, is at 7000 odd feet and has snow up the wazoo :)
Yeah, I'm writing a Mentalist story set in December 2008 and they're in the Lakes Basin. I figured that the difference between Sacramento and up the mountains had to be striking.
Just wanted confirmation, since I've never been west of the Rockies. Thank you!
Cool! Sacratomato has wretched weather in the summer. It's so hot and nasty and sticky. Once you leave, you immediately start climbing up into the foothills of the Sierra, and a lot of people who work in Sacto, live in that area. Still hot summers but without the delta oppressiveness.