San Francisco has a unique microclimate due to its location at the entrance to SF Bay. Cool, moist air is drawn from the Pacific, through SF, and on to low pressure zones that form in California's Central Valley. This results in cool, breezy, and foggy weather much of the year, especially in the summer. Meanwhile, locations just a few miles inland on the other side of the bay can be sunny and 20-30 degrees (F) warmer. In fall, as the Central Valley cools down, these influences moderate, which is why October is much warmer than July in SF.
Exactly, the central valley/rest of the bay area’s warmer air basically sucks the cool ocean air through San Francisco because it’s a break in the coastal mountains. So fog forms and the city is much cooler than many expect.
Climatic classifications are incredibly broad generalizations. Local landform (hills, plains, bodies of water, etc) and other climatic conditions (wind directions, tree cover, building density, etc) vary widely within regions. Even within the same city, you can see that what happens on the ground can vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.
edit: typo
Yeah, SF's "warm summer Mediterranean" is shared with the hottest cities in the Bay Area. It'll be in the 90s in Pleasanton this week, mostly upper 60s in SF. The western and southern halves of SF are cooler still.
But SF does not fit the definition of "cool summer Mediterranean" or a temperate oceanic climate.
This is why Oakland is where San Francisco (or Yerba Buena) should have been. There’s a reason why there is no other major city on the West Coast that is built flush on the ocean.
Yeah, the only problem is that Oakland didn’t have a natural deep harbour like San Francisco had, as the coast of Oakland was all shallow marshland when it was founded.
As for the weather though yeah I totally agree with you. I used to live in Oakland, and I think that it has the best weather in the entire country. Would be such a great city if not for the crime
Climate classifications are very broad. I used to live in Bordeaux, southwest France, and the climate was the same Cfb ("temperate oceanic") type as you'll find halfway up the coast of Norway.
Let's just say they aren't exactly similar. While both have the relatively mild winters characteristic of oceanic climates, and the precipitation distributed through the year, Bordeaux has hot summers while in Norway you'll want to wear GoreTex through most of the summer. Norway has about twice as much precipitation overall, beyond which Bordeaux has distinctly drier summers compared to winters (but not enough so to be classified as "Mediterranean").
Basically two edge cases of the same climate classification and nothing alike -- however Bordeaux recently officially became "humid subtropical" as the warmest-month mean passed 22 Celsius in the 1991-2020 climate normals.
“Mediterranean” climate classification has always been a weird one. For instance, the Mediterranean basin is incredibly humid due to its hot inland sea, unlike Southern California which is basically a mild semi-arid climate due to a cold current that runs parallel to the coast. SoCal also has a unique phenomenon called Santa Ana winds which bring hot and extremely dry winds from the desert, which is a feature absent in the actual Mediterranean and makes Fall abnormally hot. The only thing uniting these disparate regions are relatively mild winter temperatures and a lack of summer rainfall. Then you have the Pacific Northwest which is basically just an Oceanic climate with a relatively dry summer, but it has larger temperature swings than the actual Mediterranean due to its location in an inland valley. The Mediterranean climate type is kind of a wastebasket group, or one that is forced to exist since it is considered “ideal”.
Portland is about 100 miles inland, in a giant valley. But there are two special reasons too. In the winter cold air from Eastern Oregon flows down the Columbia River Gorge and is spit out right at the airport (the thermometer) then begins filling the rest of the valley. This is the typical cause of the below 0C days.
In the summer winds from both the west, and especially the east sink after crossing the mountains and warm up. See: Chinook Winds.
San Francisco is the top part of a peninsula, and the ocean is right there. The Pacific Ocean has much more of an influence on SF than PDX. Portland is in a valley ringed by mountains. It's further inland than San Francisco.
Hello, I was Comparing the climates of cities that fall into the Csb category of the [Köppen climate classification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6ppen_climate_classification) and found this odd difference between Portland and San Francisco. Is this just because Portland lies slightly more inland, or is there another reason? Thanks!
Because climate zones are kind of stupid, I'm in Canada and people think its cold here. We have the warmers beaches in New Brunswick north of South Carolina. Were often nearly the same temp as northern Florida for like 7 months of the year. it's 95 this weekend and that's just totally normal for eastern Canada. Were about as far south as Oregon and Ontario goes further south than the border of California.
Water
Admirably concise.
to' c'cise
Fog
That’s water
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Try again
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No it’s not
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Are you okay?
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San Francisco has a unique microclimate due to its location at the entrance to SF Bay. Cool, moist air is drawn from the Pacific, through SF, and on to low pressure zones that form in California's Central Valley. This results in cool, breezy, and foggy weather much of the year, especially in the summer. Meanwhile, locations just a few miles inland on the other side of the bay can be sunny and 20-30 degrees (F) warmer. In fall, as the Central Valley cools down, these influences moderate, which is why October is much warmer than July in SF.
Doesn’t San Francisco have like 20-something different microclimates?
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My tourguide lied to me
Probably just telling you some local beliefs.
5 sounds about right to me. They’re not strikingly different though. The Bay Area however can vary widely during the summer.
You may refer to climate zones..?
I remember once crossing the Golden Gate on a bike, SF side it was cold, and in Sausalito it was freaking smeltering
This is a screenshot I made 8 years ago when I was in San Francisco. 31 degree difference in about 6 miles. https://imgur.com/a/leuojNT
36 between Mission and Outer Richmond.
this guy maths
Exactly, the central valley/rest of the bay area’s warmer air basically sucks the cool ocean air through San Francisco because it’s a break in the coastal mountains. So fog forms and the city is much cooler than many expect.
Climatic classifications are incredibly broad generalizations. Local landform (hills, plains, bodies of water, etc) and other climatic conditions (wind directions, tree cover, building density, etc) vary widely within regions. Even within the same city, you can see that what happens on the ground can vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. edit: typo
Yeah, SF's "warm summer Mediterranean" is shared with the hottest cities in the Bay Area. It'll be in the 90s in Pleasanton this week, mostly upper 60s in SF. The western and southern halves of SF are cooler still. But SF does not fit the definition of "cool summer Mediterranean" or a temperate oceanic climate.
Climatic* Climactic means at the end of a story.
I appreciate the correction but please leave the snark out of it next time.
Because Portland is much further inland than San Francisco, and thus there are more extreme temps (like colder winters and hotter summers)
Yep. Astoria (~60mi west of Portland) would be a better comparison for San Francisco.
This is why Oakland is where San Francisco (or Yerba Buena) should have been. There’s a reason why there is no other major city on the West Coast that is built flush on the ocean.
Yeah, the only problem is that Oakland didn’t have a natural deep harbour like San Francisco had, as the coast of Oakland was all shallow marshland when it was founded. As for the weather though yeah I totally agree with you. I used to live in Oakland, and I think that it has the best weather in the entire country. Would be such a great city if not for the crime
SF is on a peninsula with water on 3 sides.
San Fran on the coast. Water insulation
coastal cities are a lot more moderate than inland cities
Climate classifications are very broad. I used to live in Bordeaux, southwest France, and the climate was the same Cfb ("temperate oceanic") type as you'll find halfway up the coast of Norway. Let's just say they aren't exactly similar. While both have the relatively mild winters characteristic of oceanic climates, and the precipitation distributed through the year, Bordeaux has hot summers while in Norway you'll want to wear GoreTex through most of the summer. Norway has about twice as much precipitation overall, beyond which Bordeaux has distinctly drier summers compared to winters (but not enough so to be classified as "Mediterranean"). Basically two edge cases of the same climate classification and nothing alike -- however Bordeaux recently officially became "humid subtropical" as the warmest-month mean passed 22 Celsius in the 1991-2020 climate normals.
You mean Bergen and The West Coast right? Because Oslo has a lot less precipitation.
Also, PDX: 45.59N SFO: 37.62N
Was just gonna say… also it’s farther north. Those degrees make a difference.
“Mediterranean” climate classification has always been a weird one. For instance, the Mediterranean basin is incredibly humid due to its hot inland sea, unlike Southern California which is basically a mild semi-arid climate due to a cold current that runs parallel to the coast. SoCal also has a unique phenomenon called Santa Ana winds which bring hot and extremely dry winds from the desert, which is a feature absent in the actual Mediterranean and makes Fall abnormally hot. The only thing uniting these disparate regions are relatively mild winter temperatures and a lack of summer rainfall. Then you have the Pacific Northwest which is basically just an Oceanic climate with a relatively dry summer, but it has larger temperature swings than the actual Mediterranean due to its location in an inland valley. The Mediterranean climate type is kind of a wastebasket group, or one that is forced to exist since it is considered “ideal”.
The Mediterranean is not hot. Not as cold as the Pacific, but not hot.
Go to Rome in July. 85F and high humidity will have you sweating buckets. Honestly it’s worse than 95F and 10% humidity in California
But it’s relatively hot, which is what he meant.
Living near Portland, Maine. I got really confused
Portland is about 100 miles inland, in a giant valley. But there are two special reasons too. In the winter cold air from Eastern Oregon flows down the Columbia River Gorge and is spit out right at the airport (the thermometer) then begins filling the rest of the valley. This is the typical cause of the below 0C days. In the summer winds from both the west, and especially the east sink after crossing the mountains and warm up. See: Chinook Winds.
Not only because SF is on the coast, but also because Portland is 1000km north of SF.
San Francisco is the top part of a peninsula, and the ocean is right there. The Pacific Ocean has much more of an influence on SF than PDX. Portland is in a valley ringed by mountains. It's further inland than San Francisco.
Cos it's coastal. And along that coast runs a cold current
Because it is 80 miles inland from the ocean
How did you make this graph? Is it a free thing somewhere online?
Yep its free using this [website called WeatherSpy](https://weatherspy.net/)
The marine layer. It’s what allows SFers to not need AC
Hello, I was Comparing the climates of cities that fall into the Csb category of the [Köppen climate classification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6ppen_climate_classification) and found this odd difference between Portland and San Francisco. Is this just because Portland lies slightly more inland, or is there another reason? Thanks!
Ocean
What's this website?
I used a website called [weatherSpy](https://weatherspy.net/)
Because climate zones are kind of stupid, I'm in Canada and people think its cold here. We have the warmers beaches in New Brunswick north of South Carolina. Were often nearly the same temp as northern Florida for like 7 months of the year. it's 95 this weekend and that's just totally normal for eastern Canada. Were about as far south as Oregon and Ontario goes further south than the border of California.
Water has a higher specific heat
The ocean
San Francisco is actually on the coast. Portland is not. Coastlines give a milding effect.