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Comment by bherms | Hacker News Reader

I hate that everyone calls the weather here amazing. Being cold all but maybe 30-40 days a year is not incredible weather, especially factoring in fog.

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I grew up in the South West. I don't miss hundred-plus degree summers, burning my hands on steering wheels and the backs of my legs on car seats. I don't miss the asphalt being tacky because of the heat, or the sandy, sticky, salt-encrusted feeling after spending a day running errands, alternating between air conditioned interiors and sun-baked exteriors.

I certainly understand why other people might not enjoy the perpetual cold, damp, and fog of San Francsico. But every time I need to add another blanket at night, or put on a jacket during the day, or close the window against a chilly July evening, I give a happy, contented, slightly chilly sigh.

I guess that's personal preference. Growing up in Indiana, we hit 100+ in the height of summer (and humid as hell) and subzero in the winter... While I don't _enjoy_ those extremes, it does really lend to a sense of time passing and makes the really nice days throughout spring and fall that much more enjoyable. I miss waking up on Xmas to a foot of snow, despite not enjoying snow, and having to huddle around a fire to warm up after being outside. I hate the cold, but I dig how it brings people together. As for the heat, you'll never appreciate a cold beer or lemonade (or both) like you will after mowing your lawn in 90+ degree weather. And those first few days of spring where it's light sweater weather in the morning and then 80 the rest of the day after having just braved a winter of snow and freezing temps? That's my favorite time of year.

Clearly I'm nostalgic.

You make a good point about the seasons. I took the passage of the seasons for granted while growing up. It was just "how the world works." A few years after moving out here I realized that my body didn't know what time of year it was. That was a disconcerting feeling, although I doubt if I could explain why.

I feel it as disconcerting as well and I think it's because it makes everything seem mundane and gives no distinction on a (may be the wrong word here) biological level that time is actually passing.

In California, if you want a change in the weather, you drive to it. I grew up in Maine where there were two seasons, winter and August. Oldtimers claimed there was a third, mud season. I dont miss it at all.

I'll be the first to complain about San Francisco weather, but the weather in the peninsula and south bay is nothing short of amazing.

Palo Alto is the answer to the weather. Consistently awesome compared to the city.

Yup. South of Palo Alto it gets too hot in the summer. Farther north it gets foggy and cold too often. Palo Alto and Menlo Park have it just right.

There's like, one week a year where it's in the 80's. Are you from Britain?

I worked in Cupertino for 5 years; just two towns south of Palo Alto it is frequently 90+ in the summer (and as you go through San Jose it gets even hotter). At home in Menlo Park and Palo Alto it was consistently ~10 degrees colder.

I'll confirm San Jose being way too hot. I lived there during our YC summer and it was 90-100 every day. Palo Alto and Menlo Park are incredibly comfortable 10+ months out of the year, and maybe a light jacket the rest of the time.

Don't forget Redwood City! Climate best by government test. (http://www.redwoodcity.org/about/local_history/exhibits/clim...)

ehh. isn't that right next to Palo Alto? I'm reading this thread from all across the pond, and when people from towns at biking distance from one another start discussing where the weather is better, I start feeling a bit weird.

So the Bay Area is incredibly mountainous for such a densely populated place. There are numerous 1000 meter peaks ringing the bay, and even more only-slightly-lower peaks and ridges that are right in some of the towns in question. When you combine this with the ocean and a huge estuary that drains most of the water in California out through a small channel, you get very dynamic, very localized weather patterns. There are lots of places in the bay area where moving a few blocks produces significant changes in climate.

There's an narrow altitude band in the Berkeley and Oakland hills where a nearly constant temperature inversion creates a literal "banana belt" (you can actually grow bananas). 100ft lower or higher, you get frosts and can't.

There are places in Woodside with two adjacent houses, one of which is in dense fog nearly every afternoon and the other never is, because there's only a small channel in the ridge that allows the fog to spill in, and it drains nearly straight downhill.

If you get lucky in January, you can hike Black Mountain in Los Altos and go from 75 degrees at the base to a couple inches of snow at the top.

Anyone who's lived in San Francisco can tell you all about the numerous bizarre little micro-climates from neighborhood to neighborhood. They can be exceedingly different, and it's not unusual for the temperature to drop 15 degrees as you cross the city from east to west.

So yes, Redwood City is two towns over from Palo Alto, but two towns can mean vast differences in an area where the weather changes drastically when you go around the block.

stephencanon is absolutely right about the microclimates in the Bay area. I used to live in Polk Gulch and work in the Mission. Sometimes, when I'd go to work at mid-day (which eliminates the possibility of time causing the change), there would be a 10-15 degree change in temperature from home to work, with complete changes in wind and fog as well. That was a 2 mile distance in a 7 mile wide city. Pretty crazy.

Go spend a winter in NY and then complain about the SF weather.

I don't think it's a fair comparison, though. San Francisco weather is exceptionally cold given its geographical location. It shares the same latitude as Mediterranean countries like Spain, Greece and Turkey but is much colder than them year around. This is why SF residents tend to be bitter. :)

I have spent a winter in NY. And about 24 of them in Indiana. The thing with those places is that I expect it to be frigid in the winter. San Francisco is always lauded for it's "amazing" weather, which to most people -- especially tourists who generally come with nothing but shorts + tshirts and end up buying hundreds of dollars of giants/niners/i <3 sf gear to stay warm -- is in the 70-80 range. Even when it is "nice" and in that sweet spot, it's only from about 11am-3pm and then it gets cold and/or foggy and/or crazy windy (depending which parts of the city you're in, of course).

Better than Seattle.

But oh the sunny days. Oh. The. Sunny. Days.

I will give it to you that those special days where it remains 75 throughout the entirety of the day are pretty awesome. However, in 18 months here, I can count those on two hands, and the days where it was comfortable in shorts/tshirt until 8-10 at night number at probably 2.

When you're from the cold Europe like me, the weather in SF is good ! I lived there for a while and I loved it.

The winters are milder than say, Berlin, but at least Europe gets hot in the summer.

Did you miss this summer? It was really nice from August through most of October.

It was, but still, evenings are almost never warm (i.e. above 70) except for a few days in July/August. That makes it easier to sleep, but I do miss warm summer evenings outside.

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