The inhabitants of this foggy timber town don't tan. They don't last long.
Don Hofacker said that it's usually misty, salty and gray along California's far north coast. Sometimes it gets pretty doggone hot.
Hofacker said that it gets very warm here. At times, it gets up to 81.
Hofacker is a docent at the maritime museum on the Samoa Peninsula, which is located on the narrow spit of sand in the middle of the ocean. The day temperature was 56 degrees.
Both Burbank and Woodland Hills broke their daily heat records last week.
He joked that he could think of another place with that kind of heat.
Under the high-pressure heat dome, most of California bakes. There have been fires in Los Angeles, San Diego and Siskiyou counties. Californians are being asked to use less energy from the power grid in order to avoid rolling power failures.
The month of September was one of the hottest in California, but it was also one of the most cold.
Natural air conditioning is available here. "If you can put up with a little morning fog and a little overcast sky, it's not too bad," said Doug Boushey.
The Pacific Ocean has a cooling effect.
Warm, thinner air rises in the atmosphere, and cold marine air is sucked in, like a vacuum, to fill the void when it is hot inland. The cooler air can't easily flow over mountains because of the warmer air.
There is a mile east across the bay from the peninsula that has the hottest temperature ever recorded. The mercury hit that number three times in the last twenty years.
He acknowledged that it's a questionable record.
The average high in the area over the next week is in the 60s.
It's even cooler in San Francisco, which is five hours away. The high is expected to be around 78 over the weekend.
Climate change has caused the majority of U.S. cities to have shorter, hotter winters over the last 50 years, but Eureka is one of the few places that has not changed.
The average winter temperature has gone down over the years.
Longtime locals and real estate agents say that climate refugees are helping to drive up housing costs in an already tight market.
Most people here are happy to show off their little slice of paradise, which is one of the cool places in the state.
The rest of the state was in the middle of a heat wave this week.
It was pretty chill for the 1,100 people who live in the narrow spit, which is about 10 miles long and 1 mile wide.
With gloomy gray skies overhead, Hofacker, a burly, bearded man who has played Santa Claus in the Santa Boat Parade, walked across the parking lot and ate a meal at the Samoa Cookhouse.
The last surviving lumberjack camp-style cookhouse in the western U.S. has long tables and a lumberjack museum.
Many of the patrons wore short sleeves as the temperature hovered in the 50s.
He said that someone from down south would be wearing long-sleeved shirts and down jackets when they came up here. We're comfortable.
There is a trail across Cookhouse Road that leads to the Samoa Dunes and Wetlands.
There are three children here. The first time they felt real heat in the Central Valley, they were beach lovers who could name the native plants on the dunes.
The trail went into a forest where the women picked and ate fruit. The shore pines here are contorted because of the cold wind.
There was a pale green lace lichen hanging from the branches. There's a children's tale to describe what the moss is made of, but people think it's moss.
She said that there was a fungus called Francine Fungus. She was a terrible cook. Albert was able to make wonderful food using the sun's energy, even though he couldn't build a home worth a darn.
There were two people taking a lichen to eachother.
During the first year of the Pandemic, the peninsula's dunes and beaches drew a lot of people. There was a lot of illegal camping, garbage dumping and off-road driving in the area.
There were a lot of RV and van lifers in the area.
The area is going to become more popular due to its cold, clean air.
The ocean was on the other side of the dune. The wind was strong
People don't realize they are getting sunburned when they spend time outside.
He said it was a phenomenon called fogburn. The air is so cool that you don't realize you're being burned by the sun's UV rays.
He said that you're comfortable but the ultraviolet is cooking you and you're red as a lobster.
He said that it doesn't look like the sun will come out much this week.
In L.A., I'll take fogburn any day over 100 degrees.
The story was originally published in the LA Times.
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