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Don't forget Redwood City! Climate best by government test. (http://www.redwoodcity.org/about/local_history/exhibits/climate_best/climate_best.html http://www.r

by cperry 14y ago

Don't forget Redwood City! Climate best by government test. (http://www.redwoodcity.org/about/local_history/exhibits/climate_best/climate_best.html http://www.redwoodcity.org/about/local_history/exhibits/clim...)

skrebbel 14y ago
ehh. isn't that right next to Palo Alto? I'm reading this thread from all across the pond, and when people from towns at biking distance from one another start discussing where the weather is better, I start feeling a bit weird.
- stephencanon 14y ago
  So the Bay Area is incredibly mountainous for such a densely populated place. There are numerous 1000 meter peaks ringing the bay, and even more only-slightly-lower peaks and ridges that are right in some of the towns in question. When you combine this with the ocean and a huge estuary that drains most of the water in California out through a small channel, you get very dynamic, very localized weather patterns. There are lots of places in the bay area where moving a few blocks produces significant changes in climate. There's an narrow altitude band in the Berkeley and Oakland hills where a nearly constant temperature inversion creates a literal "banana belt" (you can actually grow bananas). 100ft lower or higher, you get frosts and can't. There are places in Woodside with two adjacent houses, one of which is in dense fog nearly every afternoon and the other never is, because there's only a small channel in the ridge that allows the fog to spill in, and it drains nearly straight downhill. If you get lucky in January, you can hike Black Mountain in Los Altos and go from 75 degrees at the base to a couple inches of snow at the top. Anyone who's lived in San Francisco can tell you all about the numerous bizarre little micro-climates from neighborhood to neighborhood. They can be exceedingly different, and it's not unusual for the temperature to drop 15 degrees as you cross the city from east to west. So yes, Redwood City is two towns over from Palo Alto, but two towns can mean vast differences in an area where the weather changes drastically when you go around the block.
- bherms 14y ago
  stephencanon is absolutely right about the microclimates in the Bay area. I used to live in Polk Gulch and work in the Mission. Sometimes, when I'd go to work at mid-day (which eliminates the possibility of time causing the change), there would be a 10-15 degree change in temperature from home to work, with complete changes in wind and fog as well. That was a 2 mile distance in a 7 mile wide city. Pretty crazy.

by cperry 14y ago

skrebbel 14y ago

ehh. isn't that right next to Palo Alto? I'm reading this thread from all across the pond, and when people from towns at biking distance from one another start discussing where the weather is better, I start feeling a bit weird.

stephencanon 14y ago
So the Bay Area is incredibly mountainous for such a densely populated place. There are numerous 1000 meter peaks ringing the bay, and even more only-slightly-lower peaks and ridges that are right in some of the towns in question. When you combine this with the ocean and a huge estuary that drains most of the water in California out through a small channel, you get very dynamic, very localized weather patterns. There are lots of places in the bay area where moving a few blocks produces significant changes in climate. There's an narrow altitude band in the Berkeley and Oakland hills where a nearly constant temperature inversion creates a literal "banana belt" (you can actually grow bananas). 100ft lower or higher, you get frosts and can't. There are places in Woodside with two adjacent houses, one of which is in dense fog nearly every afternoon and the other never is, because there's only a small channel in the ridge that allows the fog to spill in, and it drains nearly straight downhill. If you get lucky in January, you can hike Black Mountain in Los Altos and go from 75 degrees at the base to a couple inches of snow at the top. Anyone who's lived in San Francisco can tell you all about the numerous bizarre little micro-climates from neighborhood to neighborhood. They can be exceedingly different, and it's not unusual for the temperature to drop 15 degrees as you cross the city from east to west. So yes, Redwood City is two towns over from Palo Alto, but two towns can mean vast differences in an area where the weather changes drastically when you go around the block.
bherms 14y ago
stephencanon is absolutely right about the microclimates in the Bay area. I used to live in Polk Gulch and work in the Mission. Sometimes, when I'd go to work at mid-day (which eliminates the possibility of time causing the change), there would be a 10-15 degree change in temperature from home to work, with complete changes in wind and fog as well. That was a 2 mile distance in a 7 mile wide city. Pretty crazy.