Spring weather in San Francisco typically consists of strong winds and average temperatures below 65 degrees Fahrenheit (°F) (18.3 degrees Celsius) due to the city’s coastal location. During the week of March 16, Bay Area residents swapped sweatpants and hoodies for shorts and flip-flops as temperatures reached over 80°F (26.67 degrees Celsius) during a week long heat wave.
In the past decade, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history due to the burning of fossil fuels, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This has heightened the frequency and intensity of heatwaves as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases trap hot air in the atmosphere.
In California, the average annual temperature has increased by 2.5°F (1.4 degrees Celsius) since 1895, due to increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, hot weather-related dangers are sometimes overlooked.
Greg Porter, senior newsroom meteorologist at the San Francisco Chronicle, shared his experience reporting on heat. “People are used to weather impacting them in real-time. Think hurricanes or tornadoes — something you can see that’s going to cause damage immediately; that’s what people think are the most impactful weather [conditions],” Porter said in an interview with The Urban Legend. “But … by far, across the world, what kills more people weather-wise is heat.”
During the March heat wave, some students took measures to protect their health in the high temperatures. “I didn’t go to [Strength and Conditioning] because [it’s] … outside, and I thought it would be way too hot,” Fergus Osborn-Hobbs ’29 said.
This March was the warmest March ever recorded in San Francisco. “When … I see that this hot weather is continuously spiking, I get a little worried that we won’t get back to that sort of neutral, wonky S.F. climate,” Charley Roberts ’27 said.
When warm air interacts with the cold water of the Pacific Ocean, the temperature contrast causes the air to reach a dew point, which results in the formation of fog. Temperature changes may impact fog formation. “One impact of the oceans, in particular, being really warm right next to the coast this year, is that you may not see that fog show up in May and June. … [The city] just won’t get the same temperature contrast that produces fog,” Porter said. “In San Francisco, the climate has sort of adapted to the fact that it stays cool in May and June and July, but if it suddenly starts to get really hot in [certain] areas, that’ll have an impact.”
Rising temperatures are an example of climate change impacting people’s daily lives. “Heat is not fun for anyone, … [which is] a good thing because people start to wake up and realize, ‘Okay, this is serious,’” Green Team co-leader Lachan McConnell ’27 said.
Different factors affect communities’ ability to handle rising temperatures. “The he people who are most affected by extreme weather events are poor people, because rich people can adapt by either turning up the air conditioning, turning down the air conditioning, literally moving somewhere or going on vacation,” science teacher Geoff Ruth said. “Poor people tend to not have air conditioning and have less resources, and can’t move or adapt as easily.”
Ruth explained the relationship between recent extreme weather events and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. “You’re seeing more headlines where the increase in temperature, or the deviation from the norm, is so extreme that you can unequivocally attribute it to climate change,” Ruth said. “[It is] a radical change that’s happened within the last five to 10 years. … It is essentially impossible that this is a natural phenomenon.”