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Summer isn't a season associated with staying indoors, drinking hot drinks and cuddling by the fireplace (which is what happens in summer in San Francisco).
I've lived in SF my entire life and no one here associates this stuff with summer LOL
Most SF residents don't even have a fireplace, and if they do, probably wouldn't consider SF's summer weather cold enough to use it...unless they just moved here from a tropical environment that's always 90 degrees, or are old people who get cold really easily or something.
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Originally Posted by Hawaii4evr
San Francisco does get nice sunny and warm weather in September and October, but if someone wanted to swim in the pool or ocean, or enjoy warmth and sunshine, they wouldn't get that in SanFran, where summer days usually top out at 65F, often feeling cooler because of the sea breeze, and are overcast.
The average highs for the summer months in downtown SF are 66-68 degrees, so it gets slightly warmer on average here than you say. And of course heatwaves can--and often do--bring the temperature higher (the record high is about 100 for every month from April through October, and ranges from mid 70s to mid 90s for every other month).
Also, SF gets plenty of sunshine, though the lack of regular hot weather seems to trick people into thinking the opposite. In fact, SF gets more sunshine and less cloud cover than the majority of US cities (it's mostly just CA to the south/east of SF, and the southwest as a whole that sees more sun than SF does). Just because SF doesn't hit 80+ degrees 24/7 during the summer, as many Americans feel it "should" (because they're all from places with insane weather, and think that's normal ), doesn't mean that it's constantly shrouded in clouds (or fog). It's a sunny place.
SF gets less cloud cover than Philly for example, year-round. And I see your username mentions Hawaii...SF gets less cloud cover than Honolulu too, throughout the spring, summer and fall.
Then there's the whole micro climate thing. It can be 55 degrees, and overcast/foggy/windy at the beach, while a few miles inland it's 70 degrees and sunny, without a cloud in the sky. Generally speaking, the eastern half of SF has weather more like Oakland (mild and pleasant most of the time, more frequently on the warm side of things), while the western half has weather more like Daly City (still mild, but often foggy and windy, and more frequently on the chilly side of things). Though contrary to popular belief, even the beach and western side of the city as a whole is often sunny and warm enough...I live right on the beach, an area that's supposedly foggy, cloudy, windy, and cold, 24/7 (it's not), and I have cactuses in my backyard. They apparently love it out here, and bloomed like crazy after I planted them. And people in more inland parts of the neighborhood can grow palm trees.
The weather can change fast too. An area can be a warm and sunny 75 degrees for several hours in the middle of the day, but be a cold and foggy 55 degrees in the morning and evening.
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Originally Posted by Dr Z
San Francisco summer is the coldest winter you will experience.
Yeah all that freezing 50-75 degree weather, with the constantly possibility of a heatwave taking it as high as 100. So cold! Make you sure you don't get frostbite or get lost in a blizzard.
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Originally Posted by Hawaii4evr
(70-74F is nice warm weather, but with a breeze may feel a bit cooler). I'm just not a fan of cloudy cool weather, especially in summer, which is what San Francisco offers most of the time. Granted, this summer there has been pleasant and warmer than usual.
Fair enough, but like I mentioned already, SF really is not that cloudy by US standards.
That brings me to the next SF weather fact that i see people constantly get wrong: rain and humidity. A lot of people think of SF's weather as similar to pacific northwest cities like Portland or Seattle. But SF only gets 23 inches per year (usually all of it in the winter, with bone-dry summers, as you would expect from the Mediterranean climate here), which like cloud levels is lower than most places in the US that aren't to the south/east in CA, or in the southwest US. As for humidity, it technically is moderate-to-high in SF, because of fog, and the simple fact that SF is surrounded on three sides by water. But despite the moderate to high humidity numbers for SF and other coastal CA areas that see constant marine layer action, the city actually has a pretty low dew point throughout the year. So SF doesn't actually feel humid most of the time. The feeling in terms of humidity is night and day between SF (usually nice and dry-feeling, unless you're stuck in some extra thick fog) and say, North Carolina (where on a hot summer day, you feel like you can drink the air, and you sweat the second you turn the A/C off).
Orlando, which has to rank among the top three in my opinion for worst summer weather. So far for July the average high has hovered around 93 with typical humidity readings around 65%, which makes for heat indices around 103.
Just got back from a lil' over a week there, and it was just brutal.
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Originally Posted by DynamoLA
I would throw Orlando to the top of that list because it doesn't even get the benefit of being by the coast. It's just hot, humid, and miserable in the Summer.
Went out to a Gulf beach one day, and it at least had a cool(er) breeze. Orlando was pea-soup humid, blazing hot, and painfully still. Add to that the more direct sunlight and a UV-Index of 11 (Extreme) and the next person that tells me Wisconsin gets "just as bad" as Florida because both see 90 degrees gets a one-way ticket to the nuthouse. The same temps feel way worse in Florida, that is the 3-4 days it even hits 90 by my house vs the endless 100+ real feel & dangerous UV's FL sees for a solid chunk of the year.
The funny thing was I heard more locals complaining about the heat than locals here complaining about our record winter last year.
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Originally Posted by Min-Chi-Cbus
Minny is probably warmer than you think. Over the past 15 years the average high temp during July has been 85-86 degrees, and the 30 year average is 84. It's remarkably similar to Chicago during summer, if you have any familiarity with Chicago during summer. I realize people know of Minneapolis to be a cold place so they assume that summers are also cool, but they're not -- they're warm, if not downright hot sometimes. Two years ago the average high during July was 90, as was much of the Midwest/Northeast that year! I like it though, but it definitely makes me sweat and by the time August rolls around makes me long for cooler temps.
I know people are including Twin Cities for "best summers" because it's so far north on the map and has frigid winters, but it's actually much warmer there in the summer than it is along most Great Lakes cities. There are more extremes there in winter and summer than Chicago, Milwaukee, Green Bay, etc., and I'm sure Cleveland/Detroit/Buffalo and so on as well. Right by the lake in Milwaukee it's often quite a bit (10-20 degrees at times) cooler on a hot day than 20 miles inland. It's also often warmer in winter during extreme cold snaps, though the trade-off is more snow and more fog.
When people mention how humid it is in (say) Milwaukee, what they don't realize is that the humidity is often highest on a foggy morning before the temperatures rise. In no way is a mid-day 90 degrees in Milwaukee like a mid-day 90 degrees in NOLA/Houston/Orlando/etc.
Obviously the worst in summer is the southwest, Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, one of these; I dunno the temperatures precisely compared to each other. Some cities in Texas are horrible, and yeah, some southeast cities are boiling with the extreme humidity(i.e Atlanta, Birmingham, Miami, etc.)
Midwest isn't bad apart from maybe South Dakota, Nebraska, or Kansas. Northeast/Pacific Northwest aren't bad at all IMO.
All los angeles doesnt have the weather of usc and south la, the whole region from east la, south to paramount and south gate, east to santa ana and costa mesa and north to la puente etc all have winter above 70, most of sfv has its coldest month at 69 too, so saying that LA is low 70s in winter is true.
Warm spells in winter for Socal send temps above 80 even to 90s, damn.
69F is still not "low 70sF"...it is upper 60sF. And having spent many days in the SFV during winter visiting family, I can attest to most days being around 63F and nights in the mid-30sF or 40sF (this was in Woodland Hills). Those 70F and above winter days are just warm spells, sure they also get warm spells shooting into the 80-90F range but it is a rare winter anomaly. Average winter temperatures are in the 60sF throughout SoCal with cooler nights in the 40sF and sometimes lower.
Its all relative. When I lived in DC I thought that the winters weren't quite as bad as the Pennsylvania winters I grew up with. But after being in LA for a few years, the weather when I come back to DC for the holidays is torture. Its amazing how quickly pleasant weather turns you into a wimp
Agreed it's definitely all relative. I moved to DC and it felt ridiculously cold compared to even Hampton Roads - not to mention Texas. I still struggle with the winters here.
It would be if it was 20% humidity with low dewpoints. Houston's 96 is about 45% humid with dewpoints still in the 60s. I don't think any in Phoenix would like that. I don't mind it. Just wear loose clothing and drink water.
I've lived in SF my entire life and no one here associates this stuff with summer LOL
Most SF residents don't even have a fireplace, and if they do, probably wouldn't consider SF's summer weather cold enough to use it...unless they just moved here from a tropical environment that's always 90 degrees, or are old people who get cold really easily or something.
The average highs for the summer months in downtown SF are 66-68 degrees, so it gets slightly warmer on average here than you say. And of course heatwaves can--and often do--bring the temperature higher (the record high is about 100 for every month from April through October, and ranges from mid 70s to mid 90s for every other month).
Also, SF gets plenty of sunshine, though the lack of regular hot weather seems to trick people into thinking the opposite. In fact, SF gets more sunshine and less cloud cover than the majority of US cities (it's mostly just CA to the south/east of SF, and the southwest as a whole that sees more sun than SF does). Just because SF doesn't hit 80+ degrees 24/7 during the summer, as many Americans feel it "should" (because they're all from places with insane weather, and think that's normal ), doesn't mean that it's constantly shrouded in clouds (or fog). It's a sunny place.
SF gets less cloud cover than Philly for example, year-round. And I see your username mentions Hawaii...SF gets less cloud cover than Honolulu too, throughout the spring, summer and fall.
Then there's the whole micro climate thing. It can be 55 degrees, and overcast/foggy/windy at the beach, while a few miles inland it's 70 degrees and sunny, without a cloud in the sky. Generally speaking, the eastern half of SF has weather more like Oakland (mild and pleasant most of the time, more frequently on the warm side of things), while the western half has weather more like Daly City (still mild, but often foggy and windy, and more frequently on the chilly side of things). Though contrary to popular belief, even the beach and western side of the city as a whole is often sunny and warm enough...I live right on the beach, an area that's supposedly foggy, cloudy, windy, and cold, 24/7 (it's not), and I have cactuses in my backyard. They apparently love it out here, and bloomed like crazy after I planted them. And people in more inland parts of the neighborhood can grow palm trees.
The weather can change fast too. An area can be a warm and sunny 75 degrees for several hours in the middle of the day, but be a cold and foggy 55 degrees in the morning and evening.
Yeah all that freezing 50-75 degree weather, with the constantly possibility of a heatwave taking it as high as 100. So cold! Make you sure you don't get frostbite or get lost in a blizzard.
Fair enough, but like I mentioned already, SF really is not that cloudy by US standards.
That brings me to the next SF weather fact that i see people constantly get wrong: rain and humidity. A lot of people think of SF's weather as similar to pacific northwest cities like Portland or Seattle. But SF only gets 23 inches per year (usually all of it in the winter, with bone-dry summers, as you would expect from the Mediterranean climate here), which like cloud levels is lower than most places in the US that aren't to the south/east in CA, or in the southwest US. As for humidity, it technically is moderate-to-high in SF, because of fog, and the simple fact that SF is surrounded on three sides by water. But despite the moderate to high humidity numbers for SF and other coastal CA areas that see constant marine layer action, the city actually has a pretty low dew point throughout the year. So SF doesn't actually feel humid most of the time. The feeling in terms of humidity is night and day between SF (usually nice and dry-feeling, unless you're stuck in some extra thick fog) and say, North Carolina (where on a hot summer day, you feel like you can drink the air, and you sweat the second you turn the A/C off).
I don't think people are considering 70-75F to be cold or chilly...it just isn't swimming weather either. Anything 50-69F is chilly, especially by summertime standards. And for the record, I wasn't talking about the more inland parts of the Bay Area, which are pretty sunny and warm in summer, I acknowledge those areas as having a nice summer climate. But downtown San Francisco, I think you're saying it is warmer than it really is. Summers are known for being chilly (although some summers, like this one, are warmer and sunnier than usual) and more often than not, overcast. Factor in the cool sea breeze from the Pacific and it feels even colder! If that were weather from October-April, maybe even May, fine. But summer is supposed to be warm and sunny most of the time. That's the season for barbecues, swimming, being outside...at least by a 4-seasons climate standard.
I don't think people are considering 70-75F to be cold or chilly...it just isn't swimming weather either.
Sure, if one is a wimp. I personally find that temp range just fine for swimming. It doesn't have to be hot as balls outside to enjoy swimming.
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), doesn't mean that it's constantly shrouded in clouds (or fog). It's a sunny place.
Houston
