Reprieve from chill, fog expected this weekend
Forecasters say Bay Area skies will be clear, conditions warm and dry
“You can’t really complain to anybody about it. It’s just August in San Francisco.” Michael Gregory, 30-year San Francisco resident
The fog, which comes on little cat feet, is moving on. So says the poet and so says the National Weather Service.
This weekend, the same fog that traditionally swathes San Francisco in August like a security blanket and which made a mess of Monday’s partial eclipse will be departing the premises ahead of schedule. Skies should be clearer than usual and temperatures higher than usual into next week.
“A substantial warming trend will start over the weekend as a ridge of high pressure to the east expands into our region,” said meteorologist Charles Bell.
Inland temperatures in parts of Alameda, Contra Costa and Napa counties — in towns such as Livermore, Concord and Napa — could reach 90 degrees on Saturday and perhaps as high as the low 100s by Sunday.
“We’ll have definitely less fog than we’ve had recently and it will burn off really fast,” said Bell, who added that the usual San Francisco summer fog will be coming back before it departs for good come autumn.
This particular batch of weather is coming to the Bay Area courtesy of the Four Corners area — where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona all come together at the same spot — and predictors say the unpredictable can happen.
In San Francisco, folks who had bundled up for the usual morning fog Thursday were pleased to know that change was in the air.
“I’ve lived here 30
years and this fog sucks,” said Michael Gregory, who was playing fetch with his Labrador retriever, Zoe, in Justin Herman Plaza. Gregory was dressed in a thick blue jacket, and Zoe was wearing an equally handsome yellow coat.
“You can’t really complain to anybody about it,” Gregory added. “It’s just August in San Francisco.”
Mike Hanley, who makes his living selling coins he cuts into keychains with a jeweler’s saw at the foot of Market Street, said too foggy weather and too sunny weather are equally bad for the street artist business.
“When people are too cold, they just want to keep moving and walk right by,” he said. “Then, when they get too hot, they just want to keep moving and walk right by. About 75 degrees is just right.”
When you’re in the business of selling a half dollar — even an artistically cut one — for $30, you don’t want a foggy morning like Thursday. Passersby kept their hands in their pockets, where their wallets were, and they didn’t pull them out. By noon, Hanley hadn’t sold a single keychain.
On a westbound California Street cable car, visitors Mike Thompson and Bill Ohde from Palm Springs were wearing heavy jackets, which is something they wouldn’t have to do if they had stayed in Palm Springs, where the temperature on Thursday was 107.
But they weren’t in Palm Springs, thank goodness, they said. They were spending their summer morning in good old foggy San Francisco, where it was much more comfortable.
“You can just see a little bit of blue sky over there,” said Thompson, as the cable car climbed Nob Hill. “You better look fast.”
As a matter of fact, said Thompson, if the weather does hit triple digits this weekend, they might just have to go back to Palm Springs.
Meteorologist Bell said the Bay Area can look forward to warm, clear and dry weather for at least a week. After that, meteorologists are as much in the dark about the weather as anyone else.