The San Francisco Bay Area has about as many microclimates as it does ethnicities, religions and cultures, a lot. Summer in the Bay Area can range from less than 60 degrees in the Sunset district of San Francisco to over 100 degrees in Walnut Creek and the far East Bay! There is something for everybody. If you enjoy swimming and tanning, head inland, for sailing, windsurfing and kite boarding, hit the bay and ocean. Mountain biking on Mt Tam, you will experience a wide range of climates, while riding up Mt Diablo will be super hot.

Southern Marin (Mill Valley, Tiburon, Sausalito and Belvedere) has what I consider to be the “perfect climate”. It is almost always sunny, but never hot enough to require air conditioning. Summertime, which from a climate perspective, runs from March to October. The temperature ranges from the sixties to the eighties with two or three heat waves when the mercury can reach 100 degrees! WE DO NOT worry though, because invariably, the hot air rises creating a suction type affect which pulls in the cool air off the ocean, which, when mixed with the hot air, creates our fog. When this occurs the temperatures can drop from the nineties to the sixties in a matter of hours. It is also a spectacular sight to see the fog rolling in from the Pacific Ocean and coming over the Marin Headlands and engulfing the Golden Gate Bridge. As soon we start complaining about the heat, the heat rises and our natural air conditioning (fog) rolls in rapidly to cool us off. This “summer weather pattern” of warmth followed by fog is at its most predictable during the real summer months of June, July and August. This phenomenon causes tourists and the bridge and tunnel folks to perceive that summers are cold in San Francisco, and they are right. Mark Twain said it best, “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”! During the “summer”, San Francisco’s temperatures range in the sixties to seventies, Marin runs in the seventies and eighties and the east bay valleys go nineties to over a hundred degrees. Our best and warmest months are in the fall or what we refer to as “Indian Summer”, September, October and into November. We experience spectacularly warm days and cool nights.

Even a small town like Mill Valley can have an extraordinary number of microclimates due to its proximity to the ocean and bay, plus being surrounded by mountains that create valleys and canyons. For example, on any given summer day, Tam Valley can be a temperate 68 degrees, Homestead Valley will experience 74 degrees and the folks on Middle Ridge will by swimming in 80 degree heat. So, make sure if you are looking to buy a home in Mill Valley (or anywhere in the Bay Area), your Realtor knows their microclimates, and schools, values and other lifestyle features that makes each of our locations so unique.

See you all on Sunday at our hosted open houses……

Posted by:  Andy Gellepis