Palm Desert is a city located in Riverside County in the state of California. Located in the Coachella Valley, Palm Desert is around 11 miles (18 kilometers) east of Palm Springs and has a population of more than 48,000 people. One of the fastest growing cities in the state of California during the 1980s and the 1990s, Palm Desert began with just under 12,000 residents in 1980. This figure had more than doubled to over 23,000 within ten years by 1990 and reached almost twice as much as that again by the year 2000.
Palm Desert is a huge center of growth for the Palm Springs region and is a particularly popular place to move to for people from colder climates such as Canada and the Eastern and Northern States, with an estimated 31,000 people per year hiring a moving company and swelling the city’s population that bit more. Over the course of the past few years, even more full-time residents have descended on Palm Desert, largely coming from the urban centers and coasts of California, having decided on relocation in droves due to the high value but still affordable homes that the city boasts.
The area originally went under the moniker of ‘Old MacDonald Ranch’, but this name was changed to ‘Palm Village’ just less than a century ago, back in the 1920s, after date palms had been planted there. It was in 1943 that the first residential development began there, in connection with a maintenance camp belonging to the US Army that was also in the area. Real estate began to be developed back in 1948 thanks to the Palm Desert Corporation, with the area finally being given its present name in 1951.
Palm Desert is home to a number of celebrities, including Rita Rudner and teenage professional golfer Michelle Wie. Bill Gates and film producers Robert Velo and Jerry Weintraub also call Palm Desert a home away from home. The community was incorporated just less than 40 years ago on 26th November 1973.
The city has a complete area of 27 square miles according to the United States Census Bureau, with 26.8 square miles of that being land and the rest being water.
The climate in the Coachella Valley is greatly influenced by the geography that surrounds it, with a valley floor that slopes to the south and high mountain ranges surrounding it from three sides. This gives it a warm climate all year round, with the warmest winters on record in the western United States. There is an arid climate in Palm Desert itself, with an average yearly high temperature of 32C and an average yearly low of 17C; however, summer nights reaching temperatures as high as 42C are common and occasionally even exceed 49C, while the sun shines an average of 348 days of the year. The hottest ever temperature recorded in Palm Desert was 52C on 6th July 1905.
Jon Huser
