which Bay Area city has the best weather? (San Jose, San Francisco: house, to buy)

[fair weather cumulus]

Hi,

My husband is interviewing for jobs in Cupertino and Palo Alto. I'm going to try to get into UC Berkeley.

I lived for many years in the midwest and northeast and developed a serious case of winter depression (seasonal affective disorder - SAD). I was completely debilitated from October through March and no treatment seemed to help. We've been living in AZ for 5 years and I haven't had any SAD issues.

I want to make sure I give the Bay Area my best shot. Can you please tell me which cities around the South Bay / East Shore areas have the best weather (sunniest, least fog, cloudy days, rain)?

Thanks!

[sonarrat]

San Jose has an average of over 300 sunny days a year, according to the city. It rains significantly less here than it does in Marin and San Francisco.

[Ultrarunner]

That's easy...

Parade Magazine commissioned a study to determine the best climate of major US cities... the study was based on the number of heating and cooling days per year and temperature extremes...

Only one US city made the list for two separate months of the year...

Oakland California was reported as having the nearly ideal climate... almost never freezes and rarely does it get hot enough to justify air conditioning...

Many older Oakland homes were built with no heater... or maybe a single 25k Btu floor furnace and central A/C is still a rarity... even in Montclair's million dollar plus homes.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

Oakland California was reported as having the nearly ideal climate... almost never freezes and rarely does it get hot enough to justify air conditioning...

Many older Oakland homes were built with no heater... or maybe a single 25k Btu floor furnace and central A/C is still a rarity... even in Montclair's million dollar plus homes.

You could say the same thing for South San Francisco, where I lived for almost two years and never needed either the heater or the air conditioning. In fact, I had at least one window open all the time, year-round. But, it doesn't have the kind of climate that the OP is asking for.

[jbunniii]

San Francisco is the only city I've ever lived in where I sometimes had to use the heat during the summer. Also, within the first year I already found anything over 80F to be really hot. Fortunately it almost never gets that hot in the city. I love fog and cool weather so for my money SF has the best weather in the region.

[tstieber]

Funny, when I was growing up in the Bay Area burbs, 80F was a cold day for us. I know in SF that would be hot. We were always 20-30 degrees hotter than the City.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by fair weather cumulus

Hi,

My husband is interviewing for jobs in Cupertino and Palo Alto. I'm going to try to get into UC Berkeley.

I lived for many years in the midwest and northeast and developed a serious case of winter depression (seasonal affective disorder - SAD). I was completely debilitated from October through March and no treatment seemed to help. We've been living in AZ for 5 years and I haven't had any SAD issues.

I want to make sure I give the Bay Area my best shot. Can you please tell me which cities around the South Bay / East Shore areas have the best weather (sunniest, least fog, cloudy days, rain)?

Thanks!

My personal favorites are Mountain View, Palo Alto, & Newark/Fremont.

All 3 have at least 5 months where daytime highs average in the 70s, but usually stay at or below 80. Winters are only a degree or two cooler than in San Francisco, but the difference isn't that noticeable because it's mainly colder at night and the same or warmer during the day.

All 3 are drier and sunnier than San Francisco as well.

[batransplant]

If you live in AZ and suffer from SAD, you will have it in the bay area. It is gray w/ charley brown clouds from October till March pretty much everywhere w/ SF having it at least a few hours per day, most days year round.

Your best bet if you move here is to make sure you buy/rent a house that gets the maximum sunlight. Don't look at the place in the rain/gray day...make sure it is sunny. You will likely need to take vitamin d in the fall/winter, keep all your curtains open, and possibly need to buy those "UV lights" for your home. Each morning you need to stare into these lights while having breakfast to elevate your mood. It is the only way to cope living here 5-6 months out of the year.

Good luck.

Fellow "SAD" sufferer

[BeeGlee]

I think the weather in any Santa Clara county city is usually ideal. The exception to this is Santa Cruz because it's on the water.

San Jose, Milpitas, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Los Gatos, Saratoga Campbell, Almaden etc. all have the same weather. It's usually mid 60s to low 80s during the Fall and Spring. It's 80+ from May to September. In the Winter it ranges between the 40s to the 60s and rains a lot.

[jbunniii]

Originally Posted by BeeGlee

I think the weather in any Santa Clara county city is usually ideal. The exception to this is Santa Cruz because it's on the water.

The other reason it is an exception is because it is in Santa Cruz County, not Santa Clara County.