Bay Area celebrates through sun and fog
The rockets’ red glare was more of a blurry glow Thursday as San Francisco’s Fourth of July fireworks fought a losing battle with the fog and low overcast that covered the bay.
Even with the haze, the holiday fireworks brought laughs, groans and cheers at Pier 39. The fog blocked much of the highflying sparkles, but about half of the explosions were visible.
The city’s famous summer fog made its usual way into the city’s annual Independence Day celebration, bringing overcast skies and drippy weather to the thousands of spectators who lined up along the waterfront to try and watch the fireworks.
The crisp lowlevel aerial displays brought cheers from the crowd, but the highestflying shells were often little more than a boom and a flash of color in the clouds.
Fog shrouded the Transamerica Pyramid, but across the bay, Oakland stayed sunny. And Coit Tower peeked through the gloom. It enveloped the bay and obscured the top of Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge from view.
That didn’t deter the crowds that strolled along the Embarcadero, because many of the visitors were insulated with hoodies, jackets and sweatshirts — the traditional San Francisco summer outfit.
“It’s cold,” said Jesse Sahbi, a Bayview resident, who was taking pictures by Pier 23. He had just eaten tilapia at Pier 39 and was ready to tough it out for fireworks.
“I come here here every year,” Shabi said.
Diego Rodriguez took BART from the East Bay into the city to catch the fireworks. He said it was less crowded than he expected.
Laura Loomis and Jill Ryan, sisters, were visiting San Francisco