how depressing is San Francisco's weather? (San Diego, Oakland: live, pool, best)

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by YoungTraveler2011

How would you compare a winter in Chicago vs a winter in Seattle?

Having lived in Seattle and San Francisco and visited Chicago in December, I can tell you Chicago is on an entirely different level than San Francisco and Seattle. Seattle is more similar to a San Francisco winter. Most days are cloudy with a light drizzle that lasts the whole day. It's a bit colder than San Francisco and more wet, but not night and day difference.

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

Having lived in Seattle and San Francisco and visited Chicago in December, I can tell you Chicago is on an entirely different level than San Francisco and Seattle. Seattle is more similar to a San Francisco winter. Most days are cloudy with a light drizzle that lasts the whole day. It's a bit colder than San Francisco and more wet, but not night and day difference.

I'd add one caveat: SF winters can have periods of days, or even weeks, of straight sunny days with no rain. I'm not sure why, but this seems to happen most often in Jan/Feb. That is quite uncommon in Seattle - it is much more consistently overcast when it isn't raining. Multiple sunny days in a row in Seattle in the middle of winter are much rarer.


When it rains, there can be little difference between the two, especially if it's a wet winter in SF, like last year. Although Seattle storms tend to, on average, be more severe, and a little colder (it's not out of the realm of possibility for it to snow in Seattle (every year or two) - this is a once-in-a-lifetime event in SF by contrast).


Chicago has a much harsher winter. If you've experienced a winter in the Great Lakes, it won't be that different from other parts there - but if you're used to West Coast winters, it'll be a hard adjustment.

[Gentoo]

I really miss Bay Area weather overall and enjoyed that cool sea breeze that would cool off the evenings so it was comfortable to sleep. Two weeks ago here in San Diego, the temperature was in the mid 80's and the dew point at one point was 72. Muggy and miserable. It's fine right now.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

I really miss Bay Area weather overall and enjoyed that cool sea breeze that would cool off the evenings so it was comfortable to sleep. Two weeks ago here in San Diego, the temperature was in the mid 80's and the dew point at one point was 72. Muggy and miserable. It's fine right now.

I'm in San Diego too nowadays! The reason it was so muggy a couple of weeks ago is because the water temperature in the Pacific peaked around 76 degrees, which is pretty warm! Then it' suddenly plummeted to 63 degrees, which is cool for us. But that's keeping the dew points way down. We're in Scripps Ranch and loving the last 10 days and looking forward to the next 10. Low 80s in the day, love 60s at night, couldn't be better!

That being said, the Bay Area was in quite a heatwave a couple weeks ago as well. At least in the Inland areas, where there were a lot of triple digit days and 70 degree night's. Did you hear about the thunderstorm related heat burst in Vacaville? It brought the temperature up from 80 degrees at 10:30 p.m. to 95 degrees at midnight! Plus humidity. Crazy stuff!

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by HockeyMac18

I'd add one caveat: SF winters can have periods of days, or even weeks, of straight sunny days with no rain. I'm not sure why, but this seems to happen most often in Jan/Feb. That is quite uncommon in Seattle - it is much more consistently overcast when it isn't raining. Multiple sunny days in a row in Seattle in the middle of winter are much rarer.


When it rains, there can be little difference between the two, especially if it's a wet winter in SF, like last year. Although Seattle storms tend to, on average, be more severe, and a little colder (it's not out of the realm of possibility for it to snow in Seattle (every year or two) - this is a once-in-a-lifetime event in SF by contrast).


Chicago has a much harsher winter. If you've experienced a winter in the Great Lakes, it won't be that different from other parts there - but if you're used to West Coast winters, it'll be a hard adjustment.

Very well summarized. At least in San Francisco, you can get stretches of sunshine and Mild temperatures in the winter, which is practically unheard of in Seattle. The daytime high in San Francisco in January is 57°, whereas in Seattle it's 44 degrees, so when it does rain, it's still a bit more bone-chilling in Seattle. But Seattle is still pretty mild considering how far north it is. In fact, you'll even see some palm trees growing all the way up there. I think a bigger issue than the occasional snowfall in Seattle, which I believe happened three times last Winter According to friends, are the brief spells of icy clear weather, where it gets into the teens at night and stays below freezing during the day. There will be at least a handful of days like that, which you definitely won't find in San Francisco. In fact, San Francisco has not recorded a freezing temperature since 1990. And then as you said, Chicago is a whole other ball game. So far apart that you can't even compare to the other two cities. I would consider Chicago Winters to be sub-arctic.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by capoeira

San Francisco weather is almost perfect. Its about the ONLY thing I like about the city. Also its mid to low 60's, not 50's. 50's would be better than 60's. Anything over 70 is too hot!

you are correct that most of the year, I'd say at least 80% of the year is in the low-to-mid 60s, but with the wind and fog, I find it really annoying. I grew up in the Bay Area but in the hot Inland suburbs, and I would love coming in for a day, put on my sweater, and then go back home to sit by the pool. I think it's not even the fact that the temperature is what it is, but the fact that you know you're in this little pocket of cool while all around you, summer is happening, that makes you feel like you're missing out on warm sunshine just Out Of Reach.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by tstieber

I'm in San Diego too nowadays! The reason it was so muggy a couple of weeks ago is because the water temperature in the Pacific peaked around 76 degrees, which is pretty warm! Then it' suddenly plummeted to 63 degrees, which is cool for us. But that's keeping the dew points way down. We're in Scripps Ranch and loving the last 10 days and looking forward to the next 10. Low 80s in the day, love 60s at night, couldn't be better!

That being said, the Bay Area was in quite a heatwave a couple weeks ago as well. At least in the Inland areas, where there were a lot of triple digit days and 70 degree night's. Did you hear about the thunderstorm related heat burst in Vacaville? It brought the temperature up from 80 degrees at 10:30 p.m. to 95 degrees at midnight! Plus humidity. Crazy stuff!

Didn't hear about that. My mom lives in Hercules and she mentioned it was hot but nothing about humidity.

Water cooling off makes sense. It doesn't usually cool till the second week of September so hopefully, the humidity is gone for the year.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Didn't hear about that. My mom lives in Hercules and she mentioned it was hot but nothing about humidity.

Water cooling off makes sense. It doesn't usually cool till the second week of September so hopefully, the humidity is gone for the year.

Crossing fingers it doesn't warm back up too much. Usually we're about to hit our peak, so maybe we'll rebound. It does seem to go up and down rather quickly, so anything could happen, even for short periods.

[CrowGirl]

LOL I remember hearing all the time that Sanfrancisco was great but the weather was one of the biggest drawbacks. Like several others have noted I loved it when I was there. It never got REALLY cold, but you could be comfortable in jeans T shirt and flennel a majority of the days. I recall a couple of uncomfortable heat waves every year but notheing that lasted too long. I live in FLorida now and would love to be back in the San Francisco weather. Ajgust in Florida we take the dog out for a relaxed walk at 7:45 at night and end up damp by the time we get home from dripping sweat and walking in the humidity.

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

Having lived in Seattle and San Francisco and visited Chicago in December, I can tell you Chicago is on an entirely different level than San Francisco and Seattle. Seattle is more similar to a San Francisco winter. Most days are cloudy with a light drizzle that lasts the whole day. It's a bit colder than San Francisco and more wet, but not night and day difference.

Seattle summers are vastly superior to me. It actually gets warm here in the city. Upper 70s and low 80s. It's a dry heat and rarely does it rain in July and August. In SF proper it doesn't feel like a summer to me. Yes you can drive inland but in terms of experiencing it on a day to day basis, too cold for me. Fall/winter to me would be more depressing if I didn't feel like I had a legitimate summer. But I prefer seasonal variation.