San Francisco Summers
19, Sep, 2011
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Tags: city in the clouds, fur coats, highs and lows, san francisco summers, summer chill, summer in san francisco, tornadoes and hurricanes
The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.
– Attributed to Mark Twain
Summertime in San Francisco is something of an anomaly. Visitors come from far and wide expecting to experience some of that world-famous California sun, only to be chilled by San Francisco’s unrelenting wind and fog. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, San Francisco literally becomes a city in the clouds.
It’s interesting to see how people initially cope with this sort of unexpected season. Some people come here and pile on giant fur coats, hats and scarves. Others try to deny the weather by donning t-shirts and rocking Wayfarers. But the spirit of SF’s summer chill is definitely best instilled in our TV weatherpeople. We recently had a mini-heatwave in mid-July this year (read: it hit 75° for about three days), and the weatherlady assured her listeners that “we’ll be done with this warm weather soon — by the end of the week we’ll have our cloudy skies back.” And, yes, 75° constitutes a heat wave in SF.
You do eventually come to love the “Groundhog’s Day” effect though. While the rest of the country is struggling with scorching temps, hurricanes and unthinkable mugginess, San Fran quietly remains a steady 66°. When the whole country is fearing tornadoes and hurricanes, you realize it’s kind of nice that SF can be trusted to offer highs and lows that are within 5° of each other every single day. It may not be fun, but at least it’s reliable!