The coldest winter I ever knew…
The Mark Twain quote “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco,” has always bothered me. Partly because he never said it, and partly because it’s statistically unfair. I pulled some data from Weather Underground to prove it.
In terms of pure temperature (I use daily high, not daily average here, because I think it’s a better test of whether or not you could BBQ), September is the best month, although the summer months (June, July & August) collectively average 1º cooler than September. I pulled the last 5 years worth, and show their average in a thick blue line.
I’ve mentioned this to people in the past, and the immediate retort is always: “Yes, but the Fall is much less foggy.” Well, not in terms of visibility…
But maybe in terms of cloud coverage (as judged from 1-10)…
If you create a stat that weighs these factors equally (temp * visibility ÷ cloud coverage), September wins, although the summer months still fare quite well:
My point is that it’s fair to say that September is the best time of year in San Francisco, but it’s unfair to describe the summer as “winter.”
