Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Norcalical micro-climates

The following ongoing version was 1st written esp. for Ann Wainwright's GB audience:

Northern CA (Norcal) weather is predictable, if implausible. Mark Twain, as a transplanted AZ-newspaper reporter/editor here (for the S.F. CALL, et al.), once wrote: "The coldest day I ever spent was a June day in San Francisco."

[Q] Could he have been serious? (He was, after all, a world-class humorist.)

[A] Well, yes, he could, relatively speaking, because where it's situated on the chilly northern Pacific Ocean, the Golden-Gate[d]-Bridge city of S.F. is always chilly, windy, foggy, naturally movie-set thrilling.

But only 50 mi south of S.F. (in the South Bay, in Santa Clara, where I'm writing this) it's usually warm, only foggy upon rising, burning off by noon, rarely ever windy. Not at all movie-thrilling, even tho bordering San Jose's competitive tourism bureau wishes it were, now that San Jose, (that I can see out the window as I write this), finally more populous than S.F., is extending further southwards, building more neighborhoods (right up to the borders of garlic-festival town Gilroy & horsey-pricey Morgan Hill.) Proud, nonetheless, San Jose calls itself the Capital of Silicon Valley, bordering Sunnyvale, its Heart; Yahoo & E-Bay, among cyberothers, are HQ'd here.

A relatively-cold Summer has just ended here in Norcal's Silicon Valley, & a relatively-hot Fall is beginning. Today's predicted to be 97oF; while just a few miles south of here (in garlicky Gilroy) it's already been over 100oF for days, as it has been 100 mi. north of here, inland, in Santa Rosa, in what's called the far North Bay.

Every day S.F. Bay TV-weather reports on 3 microclimates: Coast, Bay, & Inland, as well as even smaller microclimates: North-Bay, The Peninsula, and South-Bay. So a day can be hot at the top (Santa Rosa) & bottom (Gilroy), but cold in the middle (S.F.) People always take along a warm (often lined-leather) jacket when heading off to The City (=S.F.) = S.F. Bay living.

For a general explanation on microclimates (including S.F.'s) go to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microclimate
28 Sep 2010 18:23:44

This appears on Anne Wainwright's TypePad blog: cakecakecake, as well as The [S.F.] Bay Citizen http://www.baycitizen.org/ Citizen Blog section as "Mark Twain froze in San Francisco"

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