San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Broiling in S.F.? It might be quake weather
This column really does get results. Last Sunday, we wrote that San Francisco was a hot mess. And that very afternoon, Mother Nature turned on the heat.
The sky was a copper color at dawn. Not a breath of air. My companion, a fourth-generation San Franciscan, took just one look. “Earthquake weather,” she said.
That sort of thing is part of the folklore of the Bay Area. It is an article of faith that the day before the 1906 earthquake was warm and as still as death. It must be true. My grandmother said so, and she was there in 1906. She didn’t live to see the afternoon of Oct. 17, 1989, another hot and windless day. The Giants and the A’s were just about to start the third game of the World Series at Candlestick Park when, at 5:04 p.m. — earthquake! The biggest one in years.
Just last Tuesday, a day of record heat — 92 in the shade at Civic Center — the San Francisco Earthquake Safety Fair opened. It offered post-quake safety tips and even simulated temblors. It was perfect weather for it.
It’s amazing how what poet George Sterling called the “cool, grey city of love” melts like butter in the sun on hot days. Most San Francisco houses don’t have air conditioning. Who needs it? And when the occasional heat wave rolls in, the inhabitants sweat and suffer.
Those stuffy old apartment houses downtown and on lower Russian Hill start to smell like overcooked cabbage. Those cool houses in the Sunset District, built to catch the ocean breeze, start to swelter when the breeze dies away. The trash on the dirty downtown streets starts to cook. The heat is turned up on all the city’s problems. People get cranky.
“The main way we deal with hot weather is to complain about it,” said Jim Uomini, who lives in the normally foggy Richmond District.
And there was a lot to complain about: 87 on Sunday, 97 on Monday, 92 on Tuesday. San Francisco was hotter than Death Valley. And not just the city — SFO hit 100 on Monday, Kentfield and Santa Rosa had record highs — 101 in the afternoon. On Tuesday, San Jose had a high temperature of 99, the hottest June 11 in 114 years.
The heat of the day never really went away. The National Weather Service said the temperature in downtown San Francisco was 86 at 9 p.m. both Monday and Tuesday, about 30 degrees above a normal June night.
Most offices and such are air-conditioned these days, but getting home after a hot day’s work was no fun. An enterprising television station said the temperature hit 105 inside a BART train one afternoon. I didn’t ride BART in the heat of the day, but I did take the Muni Metro subway.
There was a huge steaming crowd at Embarcadero, the first stop, but I snagged a seat. As we rolled along, the Muni car was full at Montgomery, fuller at Powell, fullest at Civic Center, impossible at Van Ness.
But still more people tried to jam on board; it seemed better than waiting in a hot subway station. On the train, we could barely move, packed in, cheek by jowl, sweat mixed with expensive scent. You get to meet your closest strangers. Joined at the hip with me was a character from the old Dick Tracy comic strip. You remember him? B.O. Plenty.
The subway seems to run slower in warm weather. Starting, stopping, waiting. Desperate announcements: STAY CLEAR OF THE DOORS! NO ROOM! TAKE THE NEXT CAR! The passengers, checking their phones, muttering. If a revolution ever breaks out, it will be on the Muni Metro on a hot day.
Another bit of local lore is that a heat wave never lasts more than three days, and right on schedule, after a warm start — 76 at 7 a.m. — the heat broke on Wednesday afternoon.
At 30th Street, a young woman had just finished a Muni ride to remember and was heading toward Mission Street. She had dressed for earthquake weather, and now the wind was howling down Dolores Street.
“What’s this?” she said, surprised by the sudden turn in the weather. “Climate change,” I said.
By Thursday, the National Weather Service said the marine layer was 2,000 feet thick.
Summer officially starts next week. Get your warm fleece out.
Speaking of the city’s Muni system, the cash fare will go up to $3 on July 1. Wow. A few years ago paying $3 to ride would have caused a mighty howl. But nobody pays the cash fare anymore. In an informal survey I made on the 14-Mission, the 14Mission Rapid, the 24Divisadero and the JChurch (outside the subway), I sat next to the fare box and watched. Hundreds of passengers got on. Only one paid a cash fare.
The rest used a Clipper Card or had some kind of electronic fare card. Or didn’t pay at all. The principle is simple: People don’t mind if the fare goes up as long as they don’t have to pay. Muni fare inspectors? They’re as rare as a June heat wave.