Winter fog hanging over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. To the east, heat in the valley creates thinner air and low pressure. This is another picture I took around the same time of year. San Francisco gets about 15 days per year with a temp over 90F. This is for the eastern half of SF and locations just north and east of San Francisco along the bay. The cool breezes and fog out here keep this section of the city quite a bit cooler. The typical weather here is much cooler than the rest of California. According to weather.com, the warmest month on average is September with an average high of 71F and low of 56F. Brrr! Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. The difference is the condition of the local marine layer and how deep inland that influence reaches which in the case of the San Francisco Bay is much more inland compared to other areas. But why does this year seem particularly extreme? San Francisco is overall very safe to travel to. There's no bad news! Its a great place to interact with me and others that know the area well. Karl also appears on Instagram and Facebook; there's even Karl the Fog Coffee. Thunder and lightning are rare as well. Temperatures in San Francisco could be several degrees warmer today compared to Tuesday, with Ocean Beach expected to stay in the 50s and a high of 64 degrees forecast for downtown. The Bay Area is unusual in the wide variety of climates that exist just within a few miles of each other. Although fog is characteristic of San Francisco weather, it isn't foggy here all of the time. Dave Burkhart at Anchor Brewing Company researched this quotation and tracked it back to its original author. San Francisco is one of the wealthiest and most expensive cities in America. Why is San Francisco so cold and foggy? At night, it's about the same with temperatures only about 1 to 2 degrees different than the San Francisco weather. Copyright 2014www.10best.com. Progressive NIMBYS think that warm summers will decrease property values. In fact, it's often confused with just regular cloud cover since it doesn't always dip down as low on the city and doesn't have the beautiful "billowing" effect. The overall temperature decreases in part due to the clouds reflecting the Suns shortwave solar radiation. Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. What does 'chance of rain' actually mean?
As you can see, even if it's foggy one day, the next might be clear and sunny! In Oakland, you will find higher temps in the summer months (70 to 75) and about the same temps in the winter months (58 to 61). We also get quite a bit of wind, which blows in from the Pacific Ocean.

WebDespite expectations summer in San Francisco is cool, windy and often damp. "Having a bout of seasonal affective disorder in July thanks to endless San Francisco fog," wrote a Twitter user. The chill is in part a result of San Franciscos location between the ocean and the Central Valley, according to Diana Henderson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service Forecast Office for the San Francisco Bay Area/Monterey. Your room may get hot during the day, but it almost always cools down at night. And when it does rain, a whole month's rainfall often comes in just a day or two. "Sometimes we can be overly optimistic.". He also likes playing golf and watching sports. Paul is a big fan of the Boston Celtics and New England Patriots. "It's wispy, its dense, but it has a lot of space between the droplets," explains Torregrosa. Fog floods San Francisco every summer, and while there are always days of sunshine between the gray, it's typical to not see the sun for several days in a row. This is down to the fact that there is a lot of ocean upwelling here. The wind will be light with a breeze from the northeast at up to 10 mph. Whats going on? San Francisco is also known as the city built on seven hills. Rain comes in waves; a storm will blow in, last for a couple of days, and then move inland. Paul Arnold is an education expert with over 25 years of experience in the field. Bianca Valenti drops into a big wave at Ocean Beach on December 1, 2015. These hills and valleys, combined with the fog, wind, and surrounding water, are the reason for San Francisco's microclimatepockets of the city that can vary greatly in temperature, up to 15 degrees from one district to the next! But February 5, 1887, saw the citys most plentiful snowstorm ever recorded when nearly 4 of snow buried downtown. Please help us keep this unique regional magazine thriving, and support the ecosystem weve built around it, by subscribing today. As a result, the ocean temperatures are much colder in summer as well as the winds blowing in from the ocean. What Is Special About The University Of California? What to pack: You probably won't need a raincoat or umbrella, but you might need a warm jacket or hoodie, and lots of layers. If you like dressing up, you'll find plenty of sophisticated cultural events like opera and ballet in this cosmopolitan city. Menu. Click any of the links below to skip ahead to a specific time of year. ", Torregrosa considers herself a true fog aficionado. Unless you have an unusual need to have your air filtered (for example, severe asthma), you dont need air conditioning in San Francisco. This story was edited by Hearst National Editor Kristina Moy;you can contact her atkristina.moy@hearst.com. The eastern side is where you will find Union Square, downtown San Francisco, and North Beach. Get our travel tips Delivered to your inbox. In winter (November through February), temperatures usually hang out in the mid 50's (18 C) in the daytime, and drop into the low 50's (11 C) and upper 40's (9 C) at night. 1328 6th St., #2 Why is San Francisco so cold and foggy? Roughly from the Monterey Bay all the way to Cape Mendocino, the marine layer is particularly cold and foggy due to coastal upwelling. You can see it crawling over the Golden Gate Bridge, creating photo-ops for iconic shots of the bridge's top peaks poking out of a pillow of fog. I want our guests to thoroughly enjoy their stay with us, which means not freezing on the Golden Gate Bridge when the fog comes in. The Southwest and California (as much of the world) experienced one of the hottest summers on record, associated with rising global temperatures. Not to worry though, I will keep you aware of those details in the descriptions on my events pages. The last time measurable snow fell in San Francisco was February 7, 1976, when snow covered the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands, with snowflakes also coming down to sea level. But that's very normal for the Bay Area, says Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Instead, surfers don full-body wet suits, gloves and foot cover before venturing into the waves, while morning beachcombers wear hoodies and knit caps. The areas popular with tourists tend to be in the sunnier part, like Fisherman's Wharf and Union Square, but Golden Gate Park, the zoo, the Cliff House and Ocean Beach are often socked in May, June and July. (Their aim is to demonstrate how fog might be collected as a source of fresh water. Annie is a reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle.

Check out this national heat map, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). And the city has fantastic light! Downtown San Francisco is surrounded by fog, as viewed from Grizzly Peak Boulevard in Tilden Park in Berkeley, Calif. on July 18, 2021. These are usually about 35 to 40 degrees warmer than SF in the summer. It rarely gets out of the 55 to 65 degree range (12 to 18C), summer or winter. It pulls that layer over San Francisco, which typically makes the city cooler than other parts of California and the country in the summer. "In the last two weeks, the temperature and the amount of low clouds along the coast and into the bay have remained pretty constant," Null said. I think for a lot of tourists visiting in the summer, San Francisco feels really cold to them and they seem to get a bad impression which is really sad. Shouldve swung by a week ago. This is the fog that is often written about and photographed. The Pacific Ocean near San Francisco has been the coldest its been in more than a decade. A jacket or sweatshirt with a hood is the best outer layer; the wind can be cold and strong when the fog starts to come in. Some locals claim there's a phenomenon called "earthquake weather," which they say is hot and dry. Copyright 2009-2023.

We get a light rain that is easy to walk in but might last all day. But San Francisco got left out of the hot, dry part, due to its position on the tip of a peninsula surrounded by very cold water. 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"But the year-to-year variability is quite large, and I don't think we have a good handle on that due to lack of measurements. ", Local | The SF Armory was 'like fetish Disneyland' for kink enthusiastsTravel | Former Bay Area home of Charles Schulz has pretty unique featuresTahoe| Once thriving, this obscure Tahoe outpost is a ghost townHistory | Inside the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in San Francisco. This is a picture I took during a foggy summer day. Cool, moist air that blows over cold waters along the coast causes condensation, which in turn forms San Francisco's signature fog. 04 Apr 2023 07:15:03 This will pinpoint the temperature in the area of the city you are visiting. The Northern California climate gets very hot, especially in the summer, creating a low-pressure zone. Coastal upwelling is the process by which the strong and persistent northwesterly winds bring deep and cold water to the surface at the coast. To oversimplify, it's because the city is right at the mouth of the Golden Gate near cold ocean waters, which draws in wind and fog during the summer. Users of this site agree to the Terms of Service, Privacy Notice/Your California Privacy Rights, and Ad Choices. It's usually cool and windy in SF. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi scenes were filmed on location in NorCal. But the shocking part? The hoodie vendors on Fisherman's Wharf do a brisk business! Florida Agricultural And Mechanical University, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (Mit), Missouri University Of Science And Technology, State University Of New York Health Science Center At Brooklyn, Suny College Of Environmental Science And Forestry, The University Of North Carolina At Charlotte, The University Of Texas Health Science Center At Houston, The University Of Texas Health Science Center At San Antonio, The University Of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, The University Of Texas Medical Branch At Galveston, The University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Uniformed Services University Of The Health Sciences, University At Buffalo Suny School Of Engineering And Applied Sciences, University Of California, Los Angeles (Ucla), University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign, University Of Maryland Baltimore County (Umbc), University Of Massachusetts Medical School Worcester, University Of Tennessee Health Science Center, University Of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Scenes were filmed on location in NorCal and then move inland weve built around,... A lot of space between the droplets, '' wrote a Twitter user ( 11 to 13 m/s.! 13 m/s ) a picture I took during a foggy summer day the strong and persistent northwesterly winds bring and! The typical weather here is much cooler than the San Francisco Chronicle on my events pages a Twitter user reporter. 40 degrees warmer than SF in the summer eastern side is where you find! 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