
San Francisco hits 106 degrees, breaking record - thesmallestcat
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Hey-San-Francisco-get-ready-for-the-heat-12166706.php
======
alsetmusic
It's 8pm here in the Bay Area and my home is reading 91.8 degrees with the sun
down and all my windows open. I remember when I moved here in 2002 and my
first landlord told me, "You're in the Bay, you don't need an air
conditioner."

That's still true, though. We only have heat like this around September with a
little overlap before and after. It's pretty unpleasant for that six or so
weeks, however. It's noticeably worse than 15 yrs ago, too.

~~~
smsm42
> You're in the Bay, you don't need an air conditioner.

Wow he must have been an iron man. Maybe in SF you don't, but you go a bit
south and you so much do. I've spent lots of money setting up AC in my current
house and now I am feeling it's worth it. I'm relatively ok with heat but 100+
is too much even for me.

~~~
pmorici
Humans survived without A/C for most of their existence. While it is common
today it really is a luxury.

~~~
dodorex
Humans also didn't live in a lot of environments that were enabled by A/C.

~~~
pmorici
Like where? Early human civilizations started in some of the hottest places on
earth.

~~~
Reason077
Climate in the "Fertile Crescent" during the Neolithic was cooler and wetter
than it is today.

And even today it is not really among the hottest places on Earth.

------
cgb223
I'm sitting in Noe Valley on the top floor of an A/C-less apartment

Please kill me, or send ice

~~~
pjscott
Cool showers can help. Even room-temperature water is great at transferring
heat away from your body as long as the room is at less than human body
temperature. Also, if you have a fan, this is a great time to point it
directly at you. If you don't have a fan, Walgreens should be open for the
next sixteen minutes.

(I'm in similar straits at the moment, but feeling fine.)

~~~
zachberger
I've been told hot showers are better. Opens your pores allowing your body to
cool itself. I don't know if it is "true", but from personal experience, it
works.

~~~
KirinDave
I'm sorry, but please think very carefully about this. Exactly how would
"closed pores" change thermal regulation? You don't need a biology degree to
work out that this is at best a minor effect compared to evaporation.

You're bathing yourself in hot water which will raise your body temperature.
Afterwards it'll evaporate and remove some of that energy and by compariosn,
yeah it'll be cooler.

But you can get the exact same effect by taking a cold shower.

~~~
vacri
> _Exactly how would "closed pores" change thermal regulation?_

Less sweat, where the cooling mechanism is evaporation.

~~~
jerkstate
It doesn't matter at all if the water evaporating from your skin is sweat or
from the shower, the phase change is what transfers thermal energy from your
body. So, cold water will remove slightly more heat warming to the point of
evaporation (about 4 joules per gram per degree Celsius difference) but the
latent heat of evaporation of water is about 2000 joules per gram, which is
much more than the difference between hot and cold water. So it doesn't matter
that much whether the water is cold or hot, just that it evaporates off your
skin and takes the heat with it.

------
quickben
41 Celsius, for the rest of us.

~~~
zik
41 is definitely warm but I think San Francisco has a pretty gentle climate in
general. For comparison Melbourne Australia has a climate which is mostly
similar to San Francisco but we also get temperatures over 41 Celsius every
summer. Usually we get a couple of weeks in that range each year. Our record
temperature was 47 Celcius (116 Fahrenheit).

~~~
selectodude
San Francisco has one of the strangest microclimates in the world, with the
mountains and the bay and the ocean all surrounding it on three sides.

Mark Twain once (didn't, apparently, say, but it holds up) said "The coldest
winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

~~~
njarboe
The main thing keeping SF cool in the summer is a cold ocean due to the
current coming from Alaska, high coastal ranges north and south of SF, and the
large central valley to the east. The air in the central valley heats up and
rises causing a strong flow of cool air to move from over the Pacific Ocean,
across San Francisco and the Bay, into the central valley. This keeps the Bay
area relatively cool in the summers. Sometimes this flow is interrupted for
various reasons and things can heat up quite quickly. Especially if the wind
starts bring in hot air from the east.

------
mousa
It doesn't feel that bad either. I thought I'd be miserable but this dry heat
is painless compared to 90s in the East.

~~~
gnicholas
Yeah, it's a dry heat, thankfully. 100° without humidity is better than 90°
with 80% humidity, IMO. Fans are much more effective when it's dry; when it's
humid, the evaporative cooling that they're supposed to create doesn't work as
efficiently.

------
fitzroy
Good night to sleep in your Tesla.
[https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-tesla-camper-
mode/](https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-tesla-camper-mode/)

------
c3534l
It got to 105 up here in Portland earlier this month. Remember to keep your
windows open at night and try not to die if you can help it.

~~~
LarryMade2
Been doing that over in the Sierra Nevada foothills, except that last few days
- as the smoke from the Yosemite Fires is hanging around all night (nasty
stuff).

Big thing is, if you can, open the windows at night/early morning and then
close em up before it gets warm. Then keep windows AND curtains closed all day
till later in the evening (after 7pm) when the temperatures go down. Curtains
are a big insulator from the sunlight generated heat.

~~~
tjr225
In Spain and elsewhere in the Mediterranean all of the homes have functional
wooden shutters. I suppose it is for this exact same reason.

~~~
kijin
It works much better when the walls are made of brick or stone. No matter how
much insulation you stuff into a modern drywall, it will never match the
thermal mass of solid stone.

~~~
JohnBooty
Yeah, my wife and her family are big proponents of the "crank up the AC at
night to save money during the day!" thing and it's just not very effective
when talking about "modern" wood-frame-and-drywall homes.

Edit: They also seem to think that this somehow makes sense when the
temperature at night is below 70F. My wife (an otherwise intelligent person)
insists on running the window unit AC at night with the thermostat set at 68F
even when it's 65F outside. I've tried every "logical" alternative... adding
ambient fan noise to match the air conditioner's soothing rumble... window-
mounted fans to bring the cool air inside... I dunno, I've given up. Costs a
few hundred extra bucks per summer but it's not the hill I want to die on. God
knows I spend money on things _she_ finds useless!

(OK, in her defense, the AC spits out cool _dry_ air instead of the cool
_damp_ air the outside world often provides here in the Philadelphia area,
which borders on a tropical climate in the summer)

~~~
thebigspacefuck
The A/C acts as a dehumidifier so it will be more cooling than just a fan

------
usefulcat
As a resident of TX, you have my condolences. Here we measure the intensity of
our summers in terms of the number of days over 100 (typically around 4 weeks
I'd guess). OTOH, SF rarely experiences temperatures that high in any year.
OTOOH, because of that I'm guessing few people have AC. So yeah.. I feel for
you.

~~~
Mithaldu
Condolences?

As citizens of the largest industrial nation whose president not only doesn't
believe in climate change, but is even working actively to bury it: You don't
get condolences, you get to apologize to the rest of the world and realize
that you too need to work on fixing this.

~~~
yladiz
Dude, there's no reason to make his words political. Texas gets temps like
this regularly, and thankfully they built their houses with AC, but some
probably have dealt with not having AC for some part of the summer (in places
like Texas or Florida it's required to have functioning AC by law, depending
on where you're at, just like water and electricity). He didn't say anything
about climate change, or anything about politics, so there's no reason to
bring it into the discussion.

~~~
Mithaldu
This isn't political, this is about a country dragging the rest of the world
along into death, and then commiserating itself not about how bad its own
actions are, but about how bad the death feels.

~~~
yladiz
Would you say the same thing to a victim of Hurricane Harvey?

~~~
Mithaldu
Pretty sure the first thought of all of those who are of fully able mind in
that group is "fuck the white house".

That said, no, because these people are in extraordinary circumstances and
don't have time to calmly sit down and think things through rationally.
(Comparing storm flood victims with people who're a bit warm is a bit silly.)

~~~
yladiz
No, it's not about the comparison of people who are in hot temps to hurricane
victims. It's about the root cause, which is global warming, that causes both,
and because of that they don't deserve sympathy because of the position of
politicians.

~~~
Mithaldu
It's a comparison you made and it's a silly argument to try because it moves
the conversation away from the context it was in.

The person who's a bit warm does not deserve nor need condolences, instead
they and the person tempted to send the condolences should see it as a wake-up
call.

The storm flood victim doesn't need a wake-up call. They had theirs. And they
probably also don't care about "thoughts and prayers" when their very life is
at stake. They're not in a soccer match where the audience cheering actually
does anything for them.

~~~
sillysaurus3
This subthread isn't too civil. There's no reason to be aggressive. It's good
that you care about climate change, but forcing your beliefs on others isn't a
popular move.

A better way to do it would be to point to this as an example of a possible
climate change, otherwise both sides become even more entrenched in their
beliefs.

~~~
Mithaldu
If i thought anyone here needed convincing that climate change is already
killing the planet, then your comment would be worthwhile. As it is i think
there are only people here who close their eyes to it because they cannot
handle staring that horror in the eyes every single day.

Can you substantiate why you think there are people here who need convincing,
as opposed to reminding?

(Also, quite frankly, you seem to write as if you yourself think 'it is only a
theory' instead of it being cruelly real and deadly fact. Is this the case?)

~~~
sillysaurus3
I was referring to the idea that you should actively shame people for not
holding your same views. You're overplaying your hand in this, since it's not
at all clear to average people that there even is a threat.

Say I did believe that climate change was a hoax. What then? Should I be
excluded from the community? Should it be used to question my decisions,
destroy my career, hound me for it? Should it follow me around?

I don't believe that, but your logic taken to its conclusion doesn't paint a
pretty picture for the world. I wouldn't want people to behave like that to
each other. Being able to disagree is a fundamental right, necessary for
discourse and debate to work at all. If you vilify a position you lose the
benefits of this.

~~~
Mithaldu
Two points: I asked why you think there are people here who don't believe in
climate changing killing the planet right now, but you went down an orthogonal
path; that second paragraph also veers way off track from the original
context.

You're a nice person and try to be nice, but i will not acceed to giving the
HN userbase that kind of coddling, because the people posting here are not
average. Not about an issue of life death for the entire human race. You care
about someone feeling sad. I care about whether children 2-3 generations down
the line from now get to die a natural death. Do you think the former is more
important than the latter?

~~~
sillysaurus3
You remind me of Barrett from FF7. They killin' the planet, Cloud! Good
memories.

I think it's very far from obvious that children 2-3 generations from now will
die horribly due to climate change. It's clear that it's a real phenomenon,
but the impact remains to be seen. People have also been predicting doomsday
scenarios roughly since people were people, yet the planet finds a way around
them and life goes on.

It's not really about being nice. It's more like, if there were evidence that
climate change will absolutely lead to large-scale death and destruction, then
it wouldn't be necessary to make it a moral imperative to care about it. As it
stands, it's very hard to _prove_ that it will. And without proof, the idea
that people should be shamed for being skeptical doesn't really add up.

~~~
Mithaldu
> I think it's very far from obvious

I have nothing left to say to you then that i haven't said above.

~~~
sillysaurus3
Well, why do this? What's the point of alienating people for no reason? It's
not realistic to show up with no evidence and claim that children will die
horribly just to make your point.

~~~
Mithaldu
Because there's exactly three types of people in this equation:

1\. Those without the prerequisites and means to access on education. (Think
people with no internet.)

2\. Those who are willing to consider the horror of this directly, if reminded
of it.

3\. Those who do not want to it to be real and refuse to educate themselves on
their own accord because it would mean confronting a literal existential
horror.

You're 3. as evidenced by the fact that you ask me for evidence when you could
just google, and find pages like this immediately:
[https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-
dioxide/](https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/)

~~~
sillysaurus3
Not really. I asked for evidence that climate change would lead directly to
children dying in horrible ways, not that it exists.

------
pocketsquare2
"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in... _shit_."

\- Mark "Citation Needed" Twain

------
Powerofmene
That is hot IMHO. Grew up in Houston where it was hot and humid. Here in
Nashville it is a balmy 59 degrees today but that is the result of Harvey and
we have had 2 days of nonstop drizzle/light rain.all next week it is
unseasonably cool....in the 70s to low 80s. Had a week in August this year in
the 80s already. Climate change must be driving it as that is unheard of here.

Typically August through early September are high 90s and we usually have
10-12 days of the month over 100. Humidity is usually anywhere from 40-80
percent. I don't think I could live without AC but it is the humidity not the
temperature that gets me.

Hope you all get a break in the temp soon. When it is so hot you cannot
comfortably sleep fans and or AC are a must in my book.

------
shostack
I wonder if AC will pay for itself in resale value in the Peninsula these
days.

Just added it earlier this year and I'm damn thankful for it right now. Our
neighbor recently sold and I remember talking to the agent at the open house.
We were both standing there dripping sweat on a heat wave day. Now if I sold
I'd hope for a heat wave because it would magnify the presence of AC.

------
snake_plissken
My tech dudes and dudettes in the Bay, I feel for you. Kind of. 95 degrees in
20% humidity...it could have been worse John. A lot worse. Try networking 8
connection machines and debugging 2 million lines of code in 95% humidity at
95 degrees in NYC.

But seriously. I get why it's a big deal and when someone isn't used to heat
like this, it can overwhelm you. Just hydrate hydrate hydrate. And If you feel
like making something this weekend to cool off, build an evaporative cooler.
Check out: [http://www.instructables.com/id/Swamp-
Cooler-1/](http://www.instructables.com/id/Swamp-Cooler-1/).

------
jjawssd
WET A T-SHIRT AND WRING IT OUT WELL, THEN PUT IT ON.

You can get by with temperatures up to at least 100 degrees this way. Personal
experience from heat waves in Europe where many people do not believe in air
conditioning.

~~~
tehlike
Reminds me of this: [https://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8278085/singapore-lee-kuan-
yew...](https://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8278085/singapore-lee-kuan-yew-air-
conditioning)

------
JamesLeonis
It was this day I discovered I no longer own shorts.

~~~
Filligree
Find a pair of scissors, _make_ shorts.

------
nicklaf
After living in Davis for university, coming back to the Bay Area feels like a
walk in the park. I used to be bothered a lot more by the heat than I am now.

On the other hand, I can't stand, say, Atlanta. I guess they say you should
live in California at some point, but just not first. Humidity is something I
just can't seem to adapt to.

~~~
twblalock
I was just telling people the same thing. Davis in the summer is just like
being in hell, but with far fewer people.

------
bkjelden
There are plenty of days where I miss living in the bay area.

Today is not one of them.

------
yeukhon
This is why I prefer living in the basement of my own house (I live in Queens,
NYC). Also I don't have carpet, and also not wooden floor (only upstairsnin
the living room). Helps dissipate heat. Also room has enough space / gaps more
surface areas to dissipate heat.

------
matt_wulfeck
The worst part about solar with PG&E is a power outage kills your production
without a battery.

Today I should have been able to easily offset a bit of demand on the grid
during peak time, but they apparently couldn't keep the power consistently on
in San Jose!

------
huevosabio
On the bright side, we just spent a lovely evening sharing drinks with friends
at Alamo Square park... Warm nice nights like this one are rare in SF

------
zeristor
106°F is 41°C just in case anyone else completely lost

------
vondur
My AC went out about 2 years ago, and I've been meaning to have it fixed, but
realistically, it gets really bad around maybe 2 weeks of the year here in
SoCal. For the really bad days, we just rent a hotel room. It was a 104
yesterday, just finished checking in.

------
ndonnellan
Forecast for next Wednesday here in beautiful Austin is high of 86F and sunny.
This can't possibly be Texas.

 _lets ignore that 10 " of rain we got last weekend...

_also my company is hiring. jk but seriously.

------
msmith10101
I've been wondering if the heat will take down a few data centers in this
area. I guess reddit is hosted on AWS, however, so its current outage is not
related.

------
SubiculumCode
110 deg F inland near Sacramento. ugg

~~~
nicklaf
Yes but Davis is fun for taking walks at midnight when it gets like that. Safe
and warm with a subtle cool night time breeze mixed in.

~~~
SubiculumCode
Indeed. Pair that with a beer at the BeerShoppe, and a burger at Burger and
Brews.

------
trapperkeeper74
It was 106 ℉ in Palo Alto today, and over 75 ℉ in the middle of the night.

------
jshmrsn
All recorded time. 200 years is a blink of an eye on planetary scale.

------
gesman
I'm going jogging tomorrow to CSRA just for a fun of it

Anyone wanna join?

------
mhluongo
Local HD is sold out of standalone A/C units...

~~~
toomuchtodo
Amazon?

~~~
kornish
It's supposed to cool back down by Sunday/Monday, so probably not worth it
this time around (though definitely handy to have for the next).

~~~
bdcravens
My central unit was out, I bought 2 window units for $400. AC was fixed in a
couple of days. I could have gotten a hotel room cheaper, but I'm more than
happy to just put those units in garage in case it happens again. It seems
kinda silly to have an Apple Watch on my wrist, but no back up plan for
staying cool. (Granted, I'm in Houston ....)

------
ap46
Psst....Ahmedabad hit 46C 2-3 years back.

------
paulddraper
Guys, I guess your climate really is mild. I walked a few miles to the Sam
Jose airport and noticed it was warm.

Had no idea San Fran was setting records :)

(Lived in Texas, Florida, Utah.)

~~~
quickthrower2
Lots of my town is hotter than yours in this thread

~~~
paulddraper
I can see why so many people like living in California.

~~~
Simon_says
SFBA has a great climate.

------
lightedman
And here I am thinking of going mining in 115F (46C) temps tomorrow.

------
devappbkk
SF hits 106 degrees and it's earth shattering. It's around 100 almost everyday
in places like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur.

~~~
Tech-Noir
The _highest temperatures ever recorded_ for (tropical cities) Bangkok and
Kuala Lumpur are still lower than this San Francisco temperature.

------
eli_gottlieb
So you mean it finally stopped being chilly in San Francisco?

------
tedunangst
So is it a 500 year heat wave? I need all meteorological events reported in
terms of centuries now.

~~~
samstave
Ceasar! The heat-wave is flanking our western border as we speak!

The cold-front is to the north!!

We have enough food and blankets to last the month, but once the winter hits,
our troops shall be decimated!!!!

\---

Oh I thought you said centurions

~~~
foobarian
You sound like you were just listening to Dan Carlin's latest history
podcast.[1]

[1] [http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-60-the-
cel...](http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-60-the-celtic-
holocaust/)

------
mnm1
"San Francisco summers typically mean coats, space heaters and high heating
bills. Air conditioning in city homes, well, it’s not even a thing."

Author used the wrong tense here. He should have used the past tense. Air
conditioning is an absolute must these days though so are coats and high
heating bills (mainly in old buildings with bad windows/insulation). Same
thing in the northwest (except the coats). I don't see many new places being
built without AC in either location. This heat has been the norm for years and
it's not going to go away. It's global warming anyone can feel and experience.
Only idiots still cling on to their climate change denial bullshit at the
expense of the rest of society.

~~~
djur
It's been hotter than hell up here in Portland. Over the last five years, at
least three summers have seemed hotter than any summer I can remember. This
August was the hottest on record:

[http://www.wweek.com/news/2017/09/01/this-past-august-was-
po...](http://www.wweek.com/news/2017/09/01/this-past-august-was-portlands-
hottest-year-on-record-and-its-going-to-get-very-hot-again-this-labor-day-
weekend/)

And I believe it! It's gotten to the point that a forecast of ~80 is a huge
relief. Used to be I thought 80 was hot. The worst of it has been the nights
when it doesn't even cool down much -- it's hard to sleep without AC. I'm
planning to get AC set up this year. I don't think I can stand another summer
without it.

~~~
brewdad
I have A/C in the Portland area but the upstairs of my house never cools well.
I added an ecobee thermostat with the room sensors and that's helped
immensely. Now my bedroom upstairs can actually cool to 75 even though it
might be 67 downstairs where the thermostat is. It hasn't saved me any money,
but it has made this summer bearable at least.

