Learn About Microclimates - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. We talk about microclimates, and that means special areas in your neighborhood, or your town, that have a different sort of climate, just a little bit different, from what is nearby. Let’s take freezing weather, which we do not get much of here in Southern California, but we do freeze. If you are down in a low point, and there is some places nearby here that have a little, what we call a river, you would probably call it a stream, running through it, and that is low. They all freeze every winter here. Go up 500 feet, up to the hill, and they will not be touched by frost. That is a microclimate. Low is freezing, higher is less, it does not get as cold. One easy way to sort of figure those out is to look at the weather reporter, call them, And you can buy, at not too much expense, or you can get up at 2:00 in the morning for a few nights when it is freezing, or you think it is freezing. Go out and take the temperature in your yard. If you have a high-low thermometer, it will take it for you automatically. Otherwise go out there with your thermometer and freeze in your pajamas. It should be two or three o’clock in the morning, that is the coldest time. Then check that temperature for several nights against the temperature that is on the news. They might say, in this case, they might say Oceanside went down to 34. If your temperature was 36, you know that you are consistently a little better, and if it is 32, you are going to get colder. So then, when the weatherman says, “It as going to be 32 in Oceanside tonight,” if you are on the downside, you better go out and cover and protect those plants. Same way on heat and cold. The more shade plants you have, and the more humidity you have, the better microclimate you are going to set up for those plants that need it cool and shady and moist. If you do not have any shade trees and you do not have any shade, your microclimate is going to be hot. So, it is learning, thinking, listening to the news, comparing with your neighbors, and you will soon figure out if you bought your house in the right place or the wrong place. After you have bought it, it is too late.