As the entire United States and, well, the world appeared to spend much of the summer amidst an absolute scorcher, Mill Valley and San Francisco have had several opportunities to cool off, tipped off by the low-lying clouds hovering over the Headlands and Tam Valley towards Mt. Tam.
The New York Times took notice this week, touching down on Fisherman’s Wharf to check in with tourists feverishly buying an unexpectedly much-needed sweatshirt or jacket.
Anders Westlund, a college student from Southern California, reveled in the notion that they could comfortably wear pants, long-sleeve shirts and chunky boots, , the Times reported. “A lot of people escape to the heat,” Westlund said. “We’re escaping to the cool.”
“In a time of punishing summer heat waves, when weather maps urgently flash red across the country, the city is reassessing what was once seen as a liability: its chilly Pacific breezes and fog,” Thomas Fuller reported. “Merry Fogust, to all who celebrate,” wrote Kate Torres, joining the anonymous Twitter personality Karl the Fog in promoting #FogAppreciationDay online.
“We never shy away from pictures of the fog coming into San Francisco or people with jackets on — that is who we are,” Joe D’Alessandro, chief executive of the San Francisco tourism bureau, told the Times. He said he was considering marketing the summer shivers with tourist slogans like, “Come cool down.”
The bottom line for San Francisco, according to one climate change model from Warren Blier, a weather scientist with the Bay Area office of the National Weather Service, is not only that the city will stay relatively cool in the summer, but also that it may be less affected by climate change-induced temperature increases than cities further east will be.
The piece knows that while it’s wise to embrace the positives of Fogust and beyond, we also have the late, great summer weeks ahead of us.