Oct 31, 2016 @ 02:46 PM 154,004 
5 Places Where The Weather Is 75 Degrees And Sunny All Year Long

Peter Lane Taylor , Contributor

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

My wife and I have been on a mission to find the perfect climate ever since we sold our house and business last year. The pipe dream of ideal weather is purely subjective of course. One person’s brutal winter is another’s icy playground. Places without rain are also called deserts, so if you’re drawn to lush landscapes like Thailand or the Pacific Northwest, destinations with 325 days of sun a year might not be your definition of ideal.

But few people will deny that there’s just something intrinsically and inexplicably right about life when it’s sunny and 75 outside. There is actual scientific consensus to back this up (the researchers are called ‘Tourism Climatolgists’). Your body feels naturally unstressed without the need to constantly thermoregulate itself in heating and air conditioning. People who live in mild climates also spend more time outside ergo they tend to exercise more and look healthier. They look happier as well.

Have you been to Santa Barbara, California recently?

Weather can’t be painted with a broad brush anywhere, of course, so pinpointing places with the "perfect" climate often has to drill down literally to specific towns, valleys, and localized geographic "pockets". California has some of the best weather in the U.S. But on either side of the mild middl,e the state also is home to Death Valley (summertime highs of 125 degrees) and the High Sierra mountains (winter lows of -20 and up to 30’ of snow).

Microclimate plays the key roll in producing perfect weather. Case in point is Liguria, Italy’s western coastline stretching to Monaco. Summer temperatures consistently range in the high-70s to low-80s while winters are far milder (mid-50s) than other Italian coastal towns due to the Alps to the west and north which shield the town from cold winter storms and wind.

Ojai, California, barely 30 miles east of Santa Barbara, experiences summer high temperatures that are often 15 degrees warmer (91 degrees vs. 76) because of a few similarly strategically placed mountain ranges in addition to a localized "marine effect".

Note to the geographers and meteorologists who might take issue with my methodology (which is undoubtedly heavily weighted on the anecdotal side). In choosing the places included in this story, four specific weather criteria were taken into account: average summer and winter temperature, the average daily high throughout the year, inches of rainfall per year, and the percentage of sun (i.e., sunny days) annually.

My wife summed up the climatological perfection of Santa Barbara on a recent trip there: "If they could only bottle the air here". By that she didn’t just mean the fragrances of eucalyptus, pine, and lemon grass wafting down the hillsides with the warm Santa Ana winds. She meant the temperature (76 degrees), the humidity (30%), and the potential for rain (zero).

Santa Barbara has long been recognized as having arguably the best climate in the state with the best weather in the U.S. (California). The data back this up: 283 days of sun, 36 days of rain, and brief winter lows in the high 40s at worst that get you excited to showcase your sweater collection (if you still have one). If someone could somehow figure out how to tie climate to real estate, the data might also explain why Santa Barbara and surrounding towns like Montecito have some of the priciest homes in the country.

Ecuador is a country of geographic and climatological extremes, including the Amazon rainforest to the east, Andean mountain peaks over 20,000’, dozens of active and extinct volcanoes, and the Galapagos Islands offshore. But there’s a sweet spot in the middle.

Loja in central-southern Ecuador is known as the "Valley Of Smiles", and a visitor might quickly figure that the name comes from the weather (daily averages in the mid-70s pretty much all year long) rather than the city’s reputation as the country’s cultural epicenter for its music, arts, and original Colonial architecture. Because of its location just a few degrees south of the equator, Loja experiences almost no variation in daylight hours throughout the year; sunrise and sunset occur each day at 6:00. Not surprisingly retirees and travelers from around the world have recently taken notice.

People always seem to fawn over the idea of "island living" envisioning it to include sunny, 80 degree walks along the beach every day. But in many cases from a weather standpoint, the ads don’t reflect climate reality. During the summer, the Bahamas are often stifling hot and swarming with insects and hurricanes. In the winter, northeast island hot spots like Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and the Hamptons on Long Island are virtually empty and bitterly frigid with no nearby land mass to block the wind.

One notable yet still largely undiscovered exception to this unreality (for most Americans at least) are the Canary Islands, an autonomous Spanish territory located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the country of Western Sahara in West Africa.

The islands’ official tourism and travel site pretty much sums it up in the tagline on their landing page: "A climate that makes you feel full of life". Because of a unique convergence of ocean currents and other "micro-island" effects, the towns specifically located on the Canary Island’s southern and western coasts oriented towards the Atlantic run summer highs barely topping 80 while the winter highs still regularly climb into the low 70s. Regardless of temperature the Canary Islands are generally sunny and dry year-round, making the archipelago’s other tagline, the "Land of Eternal Spring", pretty fitting as well.

Costa Rica’s Central Valley region consisting of the capital San Jose and the adjacent smaller towns of Heredia, Escazu, Santa Ana, Cartago, Barva and Grecia hasn’t been a secret for decades now, precisely because the region has some of the best weather in the world. Combine that with a stable government, rainforests, mountains, and dozens of world-class surfing beaches on the Pacific Coast and it’s little wonder that the Central Valley is the country’s epicenter of expats and retirees.

The Central Valley’s daily temperature year round averages between 72 and 75 degrees, with summer highs rarely cresting 85 degrees and winter lows hovering at a balmy 64. If there’s a downside to living or traveling here compared with some of the other destinations on this list it’s that there are two distinct "rainy" seasons in May and June and September and October. But rainforests don’t grow out of deserts so this is a small sacrifice that residents are happy to make every day.

Stellenbosch’s annual weather data make it look like a microclimate supermodel: 71 (average annual high) by 50 (average annual low) by 36 (annual average rain in inches).

From October to April average daily highs are in the mid-70s to low 80s with low humidity and little rain. Winter nights get cooler, and June and July can experience more frequent showers. But Stellenbosch’s near-perfect combination of mild temperatures, occasional precipitation, and low humidity is also what makes this dry, mountainous region in South Africa east of Cape Town the Napa Valley of Africa.

For people traveling to South Africa or relocating to Cape Town for work or retirement, think of visiting this region as you would if you vacationed to San Francisco. Culturally, musically, historically, naturally, topographically, and oceanographically (including surfing) you’re in one of the most beautiful and exciting cities on the planet—without the fog.

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