What's going on here - Can you say "Cool Water"?

Los Angeles is located next to the Pacific Ocean. All of that water keeps L.A.'s temperature on the mild side.

Water and land heat up at different rates. Imagine a hot sunny day, walking along the side of a pool. It is sunny on the water and on the pavement as well, but which one cools you off? The water feels pretty good especially when the pavement is too hot to walk on.

The sunlight penetrates the surface of the water and must heat more deeply than land. Thus the heating is spread out through the water, not just on the surface. Look at the pictures below to illustrate the difference in heating.

To see how this works first hand click on the experiment.

Hot Little Rock Explanation:

The ocean is cooler than the land during July because water doesn't warm as quickly. Air above the ocean is then kept cool by the water. The westerly wind continuously brings this relatively cool air on shore in California.

Little Rock will heat up more quickly, similar to the "land" in our experiment. Even though Los Angeles receives about the same amount of sunlight as Little Rock, Little Rock will typically be warmer in the summer.

The ocean also cools more slowly in the winter than the land does. In the winter the westerly wind brings in warm air off the ocean to the shore, and keeps the temperature mild.