Why people like the occidental coast
A quote from Encyclopædia Britannica tells it all:
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The climate of the entire Pacific Coast is milder and more uniform in temperature than that of the states in corresponding latitudes east of the mountains.
A mean annual temperature as low as that of Halifax, N.S. (latitude 44° 39′ N), is not found at any Pacific Coast point south of Sitka, Alaska (latitude 57° N), while the mean at San Diego is 6° to 7° F (3.3° to 3.9° C) less than that at Vicksburg, Miss., and Charleston, S.C., in roughly the same latitude.
The means of winter and summer are very near the yearly mean.
This condition is not so marked inward from the coast; yet everywhere, save in the high mountains, the winters are comparatively mild.
Halifax, Nova Scotia's latitude of 44° 39′ N crosses the eastern U.S. some miles south of Bangor, Maine, and on the west coast passes just north of Albany, Oregon — about 20 miles south of Salem, and way way south (more than 850 miles or 1,370 km in latitudinal north-south distance) from Sitka.
Reference
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“The United States of America: The Pacific Coast,” Encyclopædia Britannica, Britannica CD 1997, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.