Check out the forecast for the next few days:

courtesy of wunderground.com

Is this weather schizophrenic, or what?

I have come to accept this as the way things are here in our Bay Area. I vaguely remember, as a child, a rare snowfall in Walnut Creek, which melted upon contact with the ground, only to have the sky open up a few moments later.

A unique feature of the Bay Area is its weather. Some East Coasters may scoff and say we have a lack of weather, but I do think that we have a unique climate in this area.

I’m talkin’ about the Micro-climates.

You all know what I mean… it could be hailing over in Contra Costa, but sunny and bright in the South Bay (which is actually what happened this weekend). Even within SF itself, the micro-climates apply. It can be foggy in The Sunset (hmm, isn’t it usually?) and balmy over in The Marina.

With this, comes the idea of Nano-climates. Nicole coined this phrase a few weeks ago as we were strolling through the Inner Mission, as we walked right into a downpour of rain, subsequently facing gusts of wind that made the raindrops fall sideways. A few minutes later, the rain had completely stopped, and the streets were dry. Yup, that’s the weather in SF for ya.

This quote from the movie Escape From Alcatraz sums it up well:
“The coldest winter I ever spent was the summer in San Francisco.”
(Although this quote is often attributed to Mark Twain, as they do in the movie, he never actually said this.)