Does the Bay Area have a mediteranean or Pac NW Climte? (San Francisco: neighborhood, moving)

[esmith143]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Climate zones for gardening tend to be much more detailed when speaking of climate than the general overall climate. The thing about the Mediterranean climate is that it's not identified by temperatures as much as other climate zones are. It's a particular weather pattern that identifies a med. zone. Wet winters and pronounced dry summers are the typical features. San Francisco, as cool as it can be in summer, displays a typical Mediterranean pattern with no precipitation from mid-spring to early fall. This is a pattern shared by Los Angeles and San Diego as well as most of the central valley.

If you stick to that definition, then the original question can't be answered at all, because Portland and Seattle share the same pattern of wet winters and relatively dry summers.

We can draw two major breaks. One is the northern boundary of the area of _relatively_ dry winters (intermittent rainstorms vs. continuous overcast skies). That one goes roughly through San Francisco and Sacramento.

The other is the northern boundary of perfectly dry summers. Most of Southern California only gets trace amounts of rain during summer months. Portland averages 3" June through August. The transition occurs somewhere around California-Oregon border.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

SF weather is unique. How do you incorporate the fog factor in Mediterrenean weather? Yes, it does not rain in SF in summer but it stays overcast and foggy most of the time. In fact sometimes the fog gets so thick it becomes drizzly and the streets get wet just like it would in light rain. From your definition, people might get the very misleading notion that SF is sunny when in does not rain but that is not the case at all. In fact the most irritating fact about SF weather is that it is barely ever sunny regardless of whether its raining or not.

I think we're talking about 2 different San Francisco's LOL. The amount of fog you get in SF depends on where you are. According to a stat I read somewhere, the sun shines 66% of the year in SF and 68% in San Diego. Obviously, that SF stat wasn't done in the sunset district and SD stat wasn't done in La Jolla; both of which are foggier than the rest of their respective cities. I do agree that the weather in SF is unique but it still fits into Mediterranean.

I certainly don't mean to mislead anyone by giving the impression that it does not rain, it does rain for about 4 to 6 months of the year. SF gets around 21 inches of rain in just under half the year and is dry the other half (we know this because grass and shrubs turn brown by May and don't turn green again till November), this puts SF in the semi-arid (albeit barely) and not the wet category.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

A lot more sun compared to what? It is definitely has the worst weather of any large cities in CA and weather of SF has more similarity with Seattle than with LA. So whether it is defined is Mediterranean or not is immaterial. SF weather is more like Seattle weather and not like typical sunny weather CA is famous for. SF summers are at least 10-15 degrees cooler than even most of bay area. Name me one city in the entire world (excluding small towns in Nor Cal) that is in the Mediterranean climate zone but is colder and cloudier/foggier than SF? Are you suggesting that Italy, Greece and Southern Spain has SF like weather???

This is wrong wrong wrong wrong! Seattle between about November and March is cloudy 6 out of 7 days with a near constant drizzle or light rain. SF, is warmer during the winter than Seattle with periodic rain storms which come, dump a good amount of rain, then leave often with bright sunny days. Very different than Seattle.

The last rain in the Bay Area usually falls sometime in mid April. The official end of the rainy season there is April 15th (Incidentally the "very different" climate of San Diego happens to have the same ending date for the rainy season imagine that). Summers in SF are mild with no precipitation and the drying out of the land I mentioned earlier. Seattle is warmer on average with very little rain. Not necessarily no rain at all. Sorry if I wasn't clear before.

[Gentoo]

I've been there when it was awful, reaching temperatures in the 90's , yes in the city of S.F.

Yep! When I was in the Bay Area in May of '06 it was during one of those heat waves. It was 90 in Berkeley which is usually cool with a stiff breeze blowing and the high 80's in SF. This was in may which is usually very pleasant in the Bay Area.

[rah]

^Yeah i remember a few times in the past couple years that it reached 100 to even 100+ in parts of SF (such as the Mission District), and it was in the 90's in Noe Valley, where i live, with 90+ degree temps downtown too, and 80-90 degree temps by ocean beach. We're talking literally weeks of 80-100 degree weather and multiple windless 70-80+ degree nights (not back to back of course, though there were a couple week to two week stretches of it)...definitely warm, and basically burning alive by SF standards. And then in 2009 we had some colder weather than normal, including temps that briefly dropped into the 20's in the Richmond, Sunset and Golden Gate park. Talk about uncommon weather patterns as of late...

[californio sur]

Originally Posted by rah

^Yeah i remember a few times in the past couple years that it reached 100 to even 100+ in parts of SF (such as the Mission District), and it was in the 90's in Noe Valley, where i live, with 90+ degree temps downtown too, and 80-90 degree temps by ocean beach. We're talking literally weeks of 80-100 degree weather and multiple windless 70-80+ degree nights (not back to back of course, though there were a couple week to two week stretches of it)...definitely warm, and basically burning alive by SF standards. And then in 2009 we had some colder weather than normal, including temps that briefly dropped into the 20's in the Richmond, Sunset and Golden Gate park. Talk about uncommon weather patterns as of late...

Are you sure of that? Temps below freezing are quite rare in San Francisco and Sunset\ Golden Gate park are strongly influenced by the ocean. Even during the coldest airmass in California, San Francisco barely sees frost if at all.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by californio sur

Are you sure of that? Temps below freezing are quite rare in San Francisco and Sunset\ Golden Gate park are strongly influenced by the ocean. Even during the coldest airmass in California, San Francisco barely sees frost if at all.

While I wasn't there for that cold snap, I heard that it got that cold there. Hell it got that cold in SD for a bit of a stretch.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by rah

^Yeah i remember a few times in the past couple years that it reached 100 to even 100+ in parts of SF (such as the Mission District), and it was in the 90's in Noe Valley, where i live, with 90+ degree temps downtown too, and 80-90 degree temps by ocean beach. We're talking literally weeks of 80-100 degree weather and multiple windless 70-80+ degree nights (not back to back of course, though there were a couple week to two week stretches of it)...definitely warm, and basically burning alive by SF standards.

That kind of heat can kill people in SF given that most residential buildings don't have A/C. Back in Texas, we would go out for some patio dining/drinking when the temp 90-100. It is actually pretty pleasant as long as there was shade. Above 100F, everybody stays indoors or in water! I think Dallas had a month long stretch of 100-105 heat in 2009 and low temp barely went below 90!

[guy1]

In between.

[Dave Coe]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

San Francisco weather is definitely not Mediterranean. How could you call it Mediterranean when there is barely any sun for large most of the year? It is cloudy and rainy for the entire winter with rarely any sunny day and then its very foggy for the summer and it can get thick fog anytime of the year. The temperature rarely goes above 65F. Bright and warm sun shine is very rare in SF.

But the overall non-coastal parts of bay area have great weather particularly in the south bay area.

I don't think there is a climate comparison in Europe but it's based on rainfall not fog.