Autumn heat wave melts Bay Area records
For Marita Murphy, the unusually warm October weather was an excuse to escape the hustle and bustle of her office and enjoy lunch at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco.
Temperatures across the Bay Area were unseasonably hot Tuesday as some areas, including San Francisco, broke record highs for the day, forecasters said.
“I made a special effort to find some park space. Summer is very cold, so you look forward to fall. It’s pretty short, but you got to take advantage while you got it,” Murphy, a 35-year-old San Francisco resident, said as she munched on an apple.
San Francisco International Airport tied an all-time record for the day set in 1965, when the temperature reached 88 degrees there by mid-afternoon, said Anna Schneider, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Records were also broken in San Jose when temperatures hit 91 degrees, surpassing the previous high of 90 degrees set in 1959. In Oakland, temperatures reached a high of 92 degrees, breaking the record from 1959 of 88 degrees, Schneider said.
Downtown San Francisco soared into the mid-80s with temperatures near Ocean Beach reaching 77 degrees, said Scott Rowe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
In Yerba Buena Gardens, people lounged in the sun, some without shirts, most wearing sunglasses. Aleksei Masluk, 27, of Belmont, stretched out on a Mickey Mouse blanket after a picnic with his former co-workers from a nearby software company.
“Everyone looks better in the sun. We are about to be in winter, and you’re not going to be able to wear tank tops and flip-flops and shorts,” said Masluk, who was wearing a tank top, shorts and flip-flops.
The South Bay and North Bay were some of the hotter locations in the area as people stayed cool at work or flocked to beaches.
“North Bay is going to be a little warmer because they’re farther away from the ocean,” Rowe said.
In Santa Rosa, temperatures were about 92 degrees, just a few degrees shy of the record high for the day set in 1959. The city of Napa came within 2 degrees of breaking a record high of 95, also set in 1959.
The unusual late-October heat didn’t deter firefighters from continuing to put out hot spots from the wildfires that burned more than 245,000 acres, killed 42 people, destroyed at least 8,700 structures and caused about 100,000 people to evacuate in Northern California this month, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Winds were a major contributor in the wildfires’ spread, but on Tuesday, meteorologists said winds in the area were light.
In Sonoma County, winds were generally less than 5 mph and 10 mph. The highest recorded winds in Napa County were 10 mph with gusts of up to 14 near Atlas Peak, where one of the biggest fires this month started and killed six people as it spread to 51,625 acres. The Atlas Fire was 95 percent contained on Tuesday.
Despite the light winds, Kirsten Sedestrom of Richmond wasn’t taking any chances. She said the wind was blowing so hard in her neighborhood when she woke up Tuesday that she packed up her family photos and carpooled to work with them.
“This is the hottest I ever remember it being this late,” said Sedestrom. “My fear is there is so much vegetation because it was so wet, and it’s so hot and dry now.”
Though Tuesday’s heat might bring up some memories of the triple-digit day when temperatures reached 106 degrees in San Francisco on Sept. 1, Rowe said the warming trend was slightly different.
“It’s now late October, just the amount of sunlight we are getting in the day is a lot shorter since we’ve crossed from summer and now we are into astronomical fall,” Rowe said. “We have more nighttime hours than daytime hours now.”
Regardless, some parts of the Bay Area would have forecasts at least 15 degrees higher than usual before an incremental cool down later in the week.
Temperatures in Half Moon Bay had already reached 80 degrees at 6 a.m. and remained in the mid-80s for most of the day. In Gilroy, the forecast came dangerously close to triple digits with a high of 99 degrees, Rowe said.
As fans geared up for the first game of the World Series on Tuesday between the Dodgers and Houston Astros, temperatures in Los Angeles were expected to remain in the triple digits.
“I think the point of being outside and being in the sun specifically is to bump into other people doing the same thing,” Masluk said. “Be friendly, meet other people and enjoy human connection. Love and be one with the sun god.”