General & Geography
According to abbreviationfinder, Los Angeles is the second largest city in the United States and is located in the state of California. The urban area borders the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica Bay.
Los Angeles has just under 4 million inhabitants, the metropolitan area comprises a total of around 18 million people. El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Ángeles, the village of the Queen of Angels was founded in 1781 and later simply called Los Angeles (LA). In terms of area, the city of Los Angeles is huge and densely populated.
It consists of many separate city districts, in which for the most part specific population groups live. Only the city center (Downtown) is densely populated and has a few skyscrapers, otherwise villas and single-family houses dominate the cityscape.
Most of Los Angeles is hilly, to the north are the San Fernando Valley and the Hollywood Hills, which gave the center of the US film industry its name. The Pacific beaches of Santa Monica, Malibu, Venice Beach and Long Beach are world famous.
The distance between downtown Los Angeles and downtown San Francisco is around 380 miles. It’s about 120 miles from LA to southern San Diego, around a two-hour drive.
Los Angeles climate
The city is located in the subtropical climate zone and the temperature differences between the individual seasons are not very high. The annual average temperature is 18 ° C, the maximum temperatures in summer are an average of 27 ° C and in winter 18 ° C. However, the summers can get very hot every now and then.
This, together with the great drought and desert winds from eastern California, sometimes even leads to large forest and bush fires. The water temperatures on the beaches of Los Angelos are comparatively low and hardly rise to 20 ° C in summer. In the winter months they are 14 degrees Celsius.
There is no classic rainy season in Los Angeles, but almost all of the annual precipitation falls between November and March with smaller foothills in April. The rest of the time, May to October, has almost no rain for most of the years. The warmest month is August, which, like in Germany, represents the high point of summer.
When is the best time to visit Los Angeles?
Basically, the region around Los Angeles can be easily traveled all year round, so LA could be described as a real year-round destination. However, which travel time is particularly suitable depends primarily on the planned activities. For example, March to June are particularly suitable for sightseeing tours and round trips. Then there are pleasantly mild temperatures with daily values of around 20 to 24 ° C.
If you would like to spend a typical beach and summer vacation in Los Angeles, then we recommend summer as the first choice. The months of May to October offer the best conditions, lots of sunshine and are therefore the best time to travel to Los Angeles for most holidaymakers. July and August are the main seasons in California and have correspondingly high hotel prices. Early booking is recommended. Winter is not suitable for bathing, but it is a suitable travel time.
Temperatures, precipitation, sunshine
| Jan | Feb | March | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| Daytime temperature | 18 ° C | 19 ° C | 21 ° C | 22 ° C | 23 ° C | 24 ° C | 27 ° C | 28 ° C | 27 ° C | 24 ° C | 22 ° C | 19 ° C |
| Night temperature | 9 ° C | 10 ° C | 10 ° C | 12 ° C | 14 ° C | 15 ° C | 17 ° C | 18 ° C | 17 ° C | 15 ° C | 12 ° C | 9 ° C |
| Water temperature | 14 ° C | 14 ° C | 15 ° C | 15 ° C | 16 ° C | 18 ° C | 19 ° C | 20 ° C | 19 ° C | 18 ° C | 16 ° C | 15 ° C |
| Precipitation in mm | 61 | 64 | 50 | 18 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 45 | 42 |
| Rainy days | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Hours of sunshine | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 7 |
| Sunrise | 7:00 | 6:40 | 7:05 | 6:20 | 5:50 | 5:40 | 5:50 | 6:15 | 6:35 | 7:00 | 6:25 | 6:50 |
| Sunset | 17:05 | 17:35 | 19:00 | 19:25 | 19:45 | 20:05 | 20:05 | 19:40 | 19:00 | 18:20 | 16:50 | 16:45 |
Temperatures
The annual average temperature is 17.9 ° C. For comparison: Munich reaches an average of 8.6 ° C, in Berlin it is 9.6 ° C. The warmest month is August (22.9 ° C), coldest month of January with mean values of 13.5 ° C. The maximum water temperature is 20 ° C. Pleasant bathing is possible from temperatures of around 21 ° C. The months of June, July, August, September and October have a water temperature of at least 17 ° C. Bathing is then possible to a limited extent.
Precipitation
The annual precipitation is 305 mm on 28 days with precipitation. For comparison: In Munich, 967 mm, in Berlin 570 mm, precipitation is measured annually. There is no rainy season, i.e. months with more than 175 mm of precipitation. Snowfall is generally not expected in any month.
Sunshine
As our climate table shows, July is the sunniest month with an average of 11.7 hours of sunshine per day. The average annual sunshine is 8.9 hours per day. For comparison: In Munich and Berlin, the sun shines an average of 4.7 hours per day throughout the year.
Cities nearby
The following major towns are nearby and have a similar climate: Long Beach, Anaheim, Hollywood, Glendale, Huntington Beach, Santa Clarita, Garden Grove, Pomona, Valencia, Torrance, Pasadena, Orange, Fullerton, East Los Angeles, Koreatown, El Monte, Downey and Van Nuys.
Los Angeles area attractions
There are plenty of must-see attractions in Downtown Los Angeles, including Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral, the Angeles Library, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall to name a few. It is a lot of fun to stroll through the districts of Chinatown and Little Tokyo or the Farmers Market. There are also several world famous shopping miles such as Broadway and Melrose Boulevard.
A visit to Hollywood with Universal Studios is part of every visit to Los Angeles. Griffith Observatory in the park of the same name is also interesting. From the hills there is a fantastic view over the whole city. The Pacific beaches in Santa Monica Bay are among the absolute highlights for visitors to the city. Santa Monica Beach, Venice Beach, Malibu Beach, Long Beach and Hermosa Beach in particular are known and world famous from many Hollywood films. But there are also very beautiful, rather unknown beaches. Overall, the region has over 100 kilometers long and very wide sandy beaches with many leisure and sports facilities.
Tourists can plunge into the nightlife on the Sunset Strip, the city’s most famous nightlife district. In addition to bars and restaurants of all styles, there are also rock clubs of some Hollywood greats.
Los Angeles weather in March, April and May
Daily temperatures averaging 21 to 23 ° C are to be expected over the next three months. The temperatures hardly fluctuate during this time.
Do you want to go on a beach holiday? The water temperatures are in March, April and May 15-16 ° C. So the weather is hardly suitable for swimming.
You can expect around 5 days of precipitation in March, about 3 days in April and about one day in May.
In the period from March to May , the sun shines an average of 9 to 10 hours a day. The sunniest weather is in April in Los Angeles, but with a little less sun you have to get by in March.
