Where's the fog? San Francisco's weather pattern may be changing
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) - The fog in San Francisco is so famous it has multiple nicknames: Karl, May Gray, June Gloom, No Sky July and Fogust. Locals say the weather pattern is changing and those suspicions seems to be backed by science.
In late June, there should be tourists wandering around freezing in newly purchased Alcatraz sweatshirts and shorts, a Golden Gate Bridge shrouded in fog. Instead, it's aggressively blue skies everywhere, no marine layer in sight.
It's not just that today is warm, locals say the gray summer weather pattern ingrained in San Francisco lore is changing.
"June is beautiful. We just closed for vacation for a week and we would normally do that because it was foggy in June. There's no fog in June anymore. It's quite strange," said Sean Clancey, owner of Clancey's Market in the Outer Sunset.
Born and raised in Bernal Heights, he'd never come out here in his youth.
"Only if it was an 85 degree day because the fog was so thick. There wasn't much to do. Coming from the Mission, that's where the sun was."
It's not just Clancy's imagination.
The USGS's Pacific Coastal Fog Project in 2010 noted that summertime fog hours had receded 33 percent over the last century.
Brian Garcia is a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
"The thing that I've seen over the years is during drought times, it seems like we end up with less marine layer - which is fascinating," Garcia told KPIX5. We are in year three of a drought. "But during the 2011-2016 drought up in Humboldt we saw a significant lack of marine layer and the same was true here, as well."
Owner of Doggie Bath-O-Matt on Irving, Matt Ceragioli says he's noticed the change.
"It sure seems like it. It's not July or August yet, so we'll see. But it seems like in the last 10 years or so it is sunnier and warmer," Ceragioli said.
