SAN JOSE — If the mercury hovers above 90 for too long in the Bay Area it’s a heat wave, and if it falls toward freezing it’s a cold snap, but what’s the term for a string of mild days in August?
For many folks basking in the moderation, it’s just a whole lot of pleasant. But it’s also highly unusual.
After the globe’s hottest July ever fueled global warming worries, and as tornadoes carved through Indiana, Kansans heeded flash-flood warnings, and powerful thunderstorms struck Texas and Oklahoma, the Bay Area has been chilling under foggy morning skies and mild, hazy afternoon sunshine.
“I think the apropos term here is ‘Fog-gust,’ ” said Jan Null, a meteorologist at Golden Gate Weather Services. “We’ve had a persistent pattern where the marine layer has been in place for the entire month, and that has kept coastal areas cooler than normal but not inland areas.”
It’s only the second time since 1980 that San Jose hasn’t had a 90-degree day in August, according to National Weather Service data. So far, the city peaked at 88 degrees on Aug. 14. If the trend continues, it will be the 15th time since record keeping began in 1893 that San Jose did not see a 90-degree day in August. Oakland hasn’t even approached 80 degrees this month, with a high of 75 on Aug. 13. The last comparably cool August was in 1995, when the temperature maxed out at 76.
Even some of the region’s notorious hot locations have lacked some sizzle. Livermore typically hits triple digits at some point in August, but so far this month it has failed to reach the century mark. It would be just the third time in 19 years Livermore did not hit 100 degrees.
“That definitely is unusual — the fact we haven’t had a heat wave recently,” said Charles Bell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “We’ve had a lot of days near normal. We haven’t had a week of really hot temperatures.”
Null said that means cloudy mornings in the South Bay, with a slow burn-off blending into an afternoon that’s hard to gripe about.
“No one’s complaining,” said Larry Bragg, a San Jose youth football coach who is accustomed to upping the hydration for his 8- to 10-year-old athletes during the dog days of August. “The players get better conditioned when we have hotter temperatures … but of course they like it much better when it’s not superhot.”
As summer reaches its home stretch, temperatures are expected to remain slightly cooler than normal with no real scorchers expected through the end of the month.
Lea Blevins, a public information officer for Livermore Area Recreation and Park District, said that although the cooler temperatures haven’t led to increased park attendance, more people are visiting Livermore’s parks in the middle of the day. And at Sycamore Grove Park, where temperatures often soar to the point where they close it down in the afternoon due to fire danger, “We haven’t had to do that a lot this summer, and we haven’t done it at all in August.”
The Bay Area forecast through the weekend included temperatures ranging from the upper 60s to the low to mid-80s, Bell said. While he said the overall two-week outlook predicts below-normal temperatures for the state, it’s not all cooler everywhere. For example, Fresno is averaging just a half-degree shy of 100, and that’s a couple of notches above the norm. And up in Redding, a 4-degree increase over the average August has the city steaming at 100.6.
LaShenae Steagall, a Los Angeles native who was at the tail end of a weeklong vacation in Oakland on Thursday, took in the uptown climate with no small degree of appreciation.
“It should always be like this here,” Steagall said. “But I’m not going to down L.A. — I can always go out without a jacket there and the sun’s always shining down all day every day. Here, you get that breeze coming between these tall buildings; it can be cold!”
And as for a jaunt to the windier city, nip that in the bud, she said.
“A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to San Francisco today,” she said. “No way. If it’s a little windy here, it’s four times as bad there.”
It’s hard to find the adverse affects to a reign of midrange. While a scooper at Little Giant Ice Cream in Oakland said warmer weather will manifest in an impulse-driven boost in sales, purveyors of the sweet cream confections are still coming in during peak evening hours. And in San Jose, a cool August has not chilled interest in thrill seekers at California’s Great America, even at the water attractions.
Park spokesman Roger Ross said hot August days are a boon for attendance, but a little dip in temperature doesn’t really hurt much.
“When people go to an amusement park, they usually plan it out way ahead of time,” he said. “The weather that does affect us is a few raindrops, but other than that, it hasn’t been cool enough to have an effect.”
Staff writer Sophie Mattson contributed to this report. Contact Eric Kurhi at 408-920-5852. Follow him at Twitter.com/erickurhi.
