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I was in the San Francisco Bay Area on July 4th, 1976. To celebrate the 200th Independence Day, the City of San Francisco set up an elaborate fireworks display

by litoE 2y ago

I was in the San Francisco Bay Area on July 4th, 1976. To celebrate the 200th Independence Day, the City of San Francisco set up an elaborate fireworks display on Alcatraz Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, which made it visible from all over the area. That afternoon a group of friends and I went up to the Berkeley Hills, where we had unimpeded view of the Bay, Alcatraz, San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, everything. We had a picnic with the usual stuff graduate students eat and then waited for darkness and the fireworks. Just as the sun was setting behind the Golden Gate bridge, the fog started rolling in from the ocean, blanketing first the Golden Gate, then all of San Francisco, then Alcatraz and finally reaching the Berkeley shore. At the appointed time, they set off the fireworks anyway. All you could see was flashes of light inside the fog. One would have thought they learned a lesson that day ....

whyenot 2y ago
A local radio station (rather ironically, KFOG) used to have an event (KFOG KaBoom!) every May, capped in the evening with a massive fireworks display over the bay. It was a fantastic event, people from all over the Bay Area could see it. My family had friends with a boat, so we would go see it on the bay. I don't remember there ever being a problem with fog. Fog is most common in the summer than in the fall, winter, or spring. The last KFOG KaBoom was in 2010 (in the parking lot at Candlestick). KFOG, the station, went off the air in 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFOG_KaBoom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFOG_KaBoom
- gojomo 2y ago
  Yep - KFOG wisely noticed late May offered better atmospheric conditions for an over-th-bay fireworks show, and thus outdid July 4th's visibility most years. The Bay-to-Breakers fun run takes advantage of the same span of especially sunny SF Bay weather – so for many years the one-two punch of Bay-to-Breakers one Sunday, then KFOG Kaboom the next Staurday made for a very special SF week in the 2nd half of May.
dieselgate 2y ago
The view looking west from the east bay, particularly the Berkeley marina, is one of my favorites. The photos of the golden gate before the bridge was built still kind of makes me shiver

by litoE 2y ago

whyenot 2y ago

A local radio station (rather ironically, KFOG) used to have an event (KFOG KaBoom!) every May, capped in the evening with a massive fireworks display over the bay. It was a fantastic event, people from all over the Bay Area could see it. My family had friends with a boat, so we would go see it on the bay. I don't remember there ever being a problem with fog. Fog is most common in the summer than in the fall, winter, or spring. The last KFOG KaBoom was in 2010 (in the parking lot at Candlestick). KFOG, the station, went off the air in 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFOG_KaBoom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFOG_KaBoom

gojomo 2y ago
Yep - KFOG wisely noticed late May offered better atmospheric conditions for an over-th-bay fireworks show, and thus outdid July 4th's visibility most years. The Bay-to-Breakers fun run takes advantage of the same span of especially sunny SF Bay weather – so for many years the one-two punch of Bay-to-Breakers one Sunday, then KFOG Kaboom the next Staurday made for a very special SF week in the 2nd half of May.

dieselgate 2y ago

The view looking west from the east bay, particularly the Berkeley marina, is one of my favorites. The photos of the golden gate before the bridge was built still kind of makes me shiver