S.F.'s cool climate a summer escape as rest of Bay Area swelters
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People seeking respite from soaring temperatures across the Bay Area are flocking to San Francisco, where the cooler climate is an increasingly enticing summertime draw.
“It’s one of the things that we promote in the summer,” said Joe D’Alessandro, chief executive of SF Travel, the city’s tourism bureau.
The bureau is quick to remind visitors to pack layers when visiting the famously foggy city, even at the height of summer. But while the chill can sometimes catch out-of-state tourists off guard, it is an attraction for those visiting from nearby cities.
In a year when record-shattering heat across the U.S. and the world has sparked concern over the the increasing intensity of the climate crisis, San Francisco stands out as one of the few places spared from blistering summer weather, including the extreme highs that ravaged wildlife and killed at least seven people in Arizona over the past week.
Even as temperatures hit triple digits in much of the Bay Area, patchy clouds and strong winds have kept San Francisco cool — a boon to businesses that cater to tourists.
Several restaurant owners, for example, told The Chronicle they have noticed an influx of customers seeking relief from the sweltering heat elsewhere in the region.
Riley Bartlett, owner of Outerlands, a staple in the often foggy Outer Sunset, said his restaurant is seeing diners fleeing other parts of the Bay Area, where it was up 30 to 40 degrees hotter this weekend.
“We’ve got the natural air conditioning out here,” Bartlett said. “Even with all the heat waves it is always a very pleasant temperature.”
Bob Partrite, who operates several restaurants at Fisherman’s Wharf, said a large number of customers from the East Bay, Sacramento and Central Valley came in this weekend to “escape the heat,” as they often do during heat waves. In the Inner Richmond, pasta shop and restaurant Pasta Supply Co. has seen people coming from inland and even Southern California for the same reason, said owner Anthony Strong.
As a heat wave engulfed large swaths of California once again this weekend, with Central Valley residents from Bakersfield to Fresno seeing highs in the low 100s, San Francisco’s weather remained a brisk exception, with temperatures rarely cracking the 70s. A consistent breeze off the Pacific Ocean tamped down temperatures throughout the weekend, meteorologists said, as local tourists flooded in.
Melanie Ensign, founder of the cybersecurity startup Discernible, moved from San Francisco to Miami during the pandemic. Mayor Francis Suarez has touted Miami as the next big tech hub, though the collapse last year of cryptocurrency firm FTX — which had naming rights to the Miami Heat’s basketball arena — dampened the mood.
The city has been living up to its local team’s name. Starting June 11, Miami’s heat index temperature surpassed 100 degrees for 46 straight days, a new record. Sea surface water off Florida’s southern coast also reached triple digits.
But Ensign, who enjoys ocean diving, doesn’t miss the Bay Area’s chill.
“San Francisco’s cold summers,” she said, “are one reason I left.”
Roland Li and Danielle Echeverria contributed to this report.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
