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Guide to seasonal weather in Big Bear Lake, California

Whether you are planning a trip to Big Bear Lake, California in the dead of winter or planning to "head up the hill" for some summer fun, it's best to reach back in your mind and relive that over-caring, motherly voice which permeated your youth. Listen! Can you hear her? "Take a sweater, it might get cold!" Good call! Oh, and there is no "dead of winter" in Southern California anyway. That's Rose Parade season.

The dress requirements here are relaxed yet practical. The weather in the mountains of Southern California dictate that layering is key. In scientific terms, Big Bear Lake, as well as much of the mountains of Southern California, lay claim to existing as an "Alpine-Tundra Climate." The classification, put simply in terms of packing your bags, means that it gets COLD, yet not Arctic-Tundra cold. Many Californians feel this is misclassified anyway. When the lake freezes over, folks ARE NOT permitted out on the ice. It just does not get that cold for safe, thick ice to form. So, while your tour guide tells you about all the famous movies and TV shows filmed in and around Big Bear Lake, and there are many, rest assured that ICE ROAD TRUCKERS isn't among the collection.

Summer, and all swim weather surrounding it, dictates that a swimsuit be part of the packing list. If you are proud of your own sensible packing job, Great! However, Big Bear Lake is also a shopping run for some folks, so don't start gathering yarn for the emergency crochet job. This is Southern California and thus we only get to PRETEND it's a big, isolated mountain. Besides, a majority of people up on that mountain came up that day and just for the day! But, are they layering? See if you can spot the amateurs. Summer nights can get cool, OK, cold. It's not uncommon to experience 45 degrees F at night in the summer while the valley below is battling a substantial heat wave. Watch the weather reports. Los Angeles is climatically divided into coast, inland valleys, deserts and local mountains. There's big time fluctuation in temperatures around this locale.

Here are the winter and summer daily averages for Big Bear Lake. Remember that, in the case of packing for a trip, these numbers merely translate to how many LAYERS of warmth you should pack. Fall and spring temperatures fluctuate and LAYERING remains the rule du jour. Seasons, as in four separate but equal ones, are mostly pretend around here.

WINTER -Daily average Temperature

Day - from 20 degrees F to 64 degrees F average
Night from 8 degrees to 39 degrees F average

SUMMER Daily average Temperature

Day from 70 degrees F to 88 degrees F average
Night 45 degrees F to 60 degrees F average

Big Bear Lake, California awaits you! Layer yourself, perhaps starting with a swimsuit, and come on up! We hate to brag; but we're above the smog here!

Learn more about this author, Craig A. Hoffmann.
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