By Daniel Hirsch, Mission Local
We’ve all noticed it. Whether we’re having a barbecue in a friend’s back patio, sunbathing in Dolores Park, or waiting in line for ice cream, we’ve all seen days where there seems to be a perfect circle of blue sky hovering over the Mission – but only over the Mission.
We have the famous San Francisco “microclimates” to blame. But what does that mean exactly, and how do they form?
The Department of Public Works lists three main microclimates in San Francisco, the Fog Belt that encompasses most of the city’s western neighborhoods, the Transition Zone which includes neighborhoods in the middle such as the Haight and the Marina, and the Sunbelt, which includes the Mission and other eastern neighborhoods.
The causes of this climatological complexity where the weather can change from block to block are pretty elemental: hot air, cold air, and hills.
“The short story is cold water to the West, warm valley to the East, and big hills blocking the fog,” says Paul Doherty, a senior staff scientist at the Exploratorium, which recently opened its new location at Pier 15 on the Embarcadero, near the Ferry Building, a Sunbelt locale.
“San Francisco is city of hills by the bay,” says Doherty. “But really it’s more a city of hills by the Pacific Ocean that causes all the microclimates.”
Read the complete story at Mission Local.