which Bay Area city has the best weather? (San Jose, San Francisco: live, cities)

[Stephen1110]

Oakland has the best weather out of all U.S. cities.

Warmer than San Francisco, cooler than San Jose

[Brenda-by-the-sea]

Originally Posted by Stephen1110

Oakland has the best weather out of all U.S. cities.

That might be true if

1. You put an extraordinarily high priority on never wanting warm weather
2. You can put up with a certain amount of fog

San Luis Obispo has 10 months a year when the average high temperature falls between 65F and 80F. Oakland has 6 months that meet that criterion. In San Diego you can get that all year round. There is no such thing as "best weather" by a clear and objective measure. Different people prefer different things. At any rate, the OP wants sun and dryness. You can do a lot better than Oakland if that's your priority. I would maybe look at Walnut Creek, but there's still going to be a certain amount of winter gloom. You really have to get south of the 35th parallel to get out of the SAD belt. It's a celestial phenomenon relating to latitude and the angle of solar radiation, not just a weather issue.

[Stephen1110]

How fraudulent of you Brenda,

"which Bay Area city has the best weather"

When answering that question, you have to realize that the city rated for having the best weather in the United States, is in fact a Bay Area city. - Oakland, Hence it's nickname "Bright Side of the Bay"

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Brenda-by-the-sea

That might be true if

1. You put an extraordinarily high priority on never wanting warm weather
2. You can put up with a certain amount of fog

San Luis Obispo has 10 months a year when the average high temperature falls between 65F and 80F. Oakland has 6 months that meet that criterion. In San Diego you can get that all year round. There is no such thing as "best weather" by a clear and objective measure. Different people prefer different things. At any rate, the OP wants sun and dryness. You can do a lot better than Oakland if that's your priority. I would maybe look at Walnut Creek, but there's still going to be a certain amount of winter gloom. You really have to get south of the 35th parallel to get out of the SAD belt. It's a celestial phenomenon relating to latitude and the angle of solar radiation, not just a weather issue.

Isn't the 35th parallel a bit arbitrary? The 35th parallel itself has nothing to do with SAD, since climate patterns are not solely governed by latitude, and SAD is very much influenced by weather and not just solar radiation. I'm in San Diego at the moment, and because of the LONGITUDE, the sun sets earlier than in SF, and I'm not up to see the earlier sunrise, so in a way, that would create worse SAD even at a lower latitude. So I think sunshine vs. gloom is a much bigger part of SAD than latitude.

All in all, the Bay Area has a mediterranean climate that has much more extended periods of seasonal drought and sunshine than most climates at the same latitude. The actual Mediterranean seaside resorts, which have the same or worse winter gloom issues compared to the Bay Area, are generally at the same or higher latitude as the Bay Area, yet people never characterize them as harbingers of SAD. People characterize the Mediterranean as generally warm and sunny despite their latitude and the winter storms. I think it's a matter of glass half full vs half empty. I agree that Oakland has a fantastic climate overall. And I do think it's warm enough -- according to Wikipedia, it averages well into the 70s in summer, and only 59 in winter, which is a very pleasant range.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by Brenda-by-the-sea

That might be true if

1. You put an extraordinarily high priority on never wanting warm weather
2. You can put up with a certain amount of fog

San Luis Obispo has 10 months a year when the average high temperature falls between 65F and 80F. Oakland has 6 months that meet that criterion. In San Diego you can get that all year round.

According to Wikipedia, Oakland has 9 months between 64.2F and 80.6F, which is almost the exact same range. Making it 65 to 80 just squeezes out the marginal months, but really, it's almost the same range.

I agree that weather can't be objectively defined, but I'd say most people like lots of sun and moderate temps. San Diego (although it's actually been icy here in the mornings away from the water lately) is probably the closest to that ideal. LA is much too hot by comparison. SF is too cool. Personally, I think San Jose is better than OAK, but for some, maybe a tad hot as well. Oakland is pretty darn nice though, and when we went to SLO this summer, it was much colder there than OAK. But you can pretty much grow the same tropical vegetation in any of those cities, so we're just splitting hairs if we compare any of those cities to anywhere outside California.

[Nineties Flava]

Redwood City's slogan is "climate best by government test"... nuff said.

[krudmonk]

It's a pretty comfortable range from Richmond down to San Jose, not including Coyote Valley.

[Jona Denz-Hamilton]

Someone says it rains a lot" during the winter in Santa Clara County. It does not at all, compared to the rest of the Bay Area, the state, or the country. Rainfall is moderate at most.Sunshine is abundant in the San Jose area year round.

[gone down south]

Originally Posted by Jona Denz-Hamilton

Someone says it rains a lot" during the winter in Santa Clara County. It does not at all, compared to the rest of the Bay Area, the state, or the country. Rainfall is moderate at most.Sunshine is abundant in the San Jose area year round.

2010 me says thanks.

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by gone down south

2010 me says thanks.

lol

(gotta love when a newbie resurrects an ancient thread)