11.14 Understanding United States Weather
The map below is a map of the temperature of the United States on June 12, 2026.
We can see that the temperature in the Western United States is a lot cooler than the hot temperatures in the Eastern United States. I traveled to Seattle in the state of Washington from NYC one summer and was amazed at how much better the weather was. Not only was it a very pleasant temperature in Seattle but I wasn't weight down by an ocean of humidity the way I am in NYC. I've included a map below that identifies the states so you can match the temperatures to the states.
By Wapcaplet, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81990933
The west of the United States in addition to having better weather in the summer is beautiful, especially in the mountains. One would expect the whole U.S. to migrate west but people are leaving Washington, Oregon and California because it has become to expensive to live in those places. A major cause of that is taxes that are too high. There is evidence that one reason the taxes in California are so high is corruption and fraud but there are other reasons like huge spending on social programs. One piece of evidence that there is fraud and incompetence is that California spent billions on homeless programs and there is no evidence that those billions helped reduce the homeless population.
The main purpose of this lesson though is understand why the weather is better in the summer. One reason is ocean currents. The California current is a current that travels from North to South bringing cold water southward. That cold Pacific ocean water cools down the Western United States. Our east coast is next to the gulf stream which moves northward and brings hot water temperatures with it that warm up the Eastern United States.
Here is a video about why U.S. weather is, the way it is.
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