San Francisco’s famously chilly summers have long shocked visitors, made sweatshirts a year-round gift shop staple, and turned its fog into a social media star.
Now, as California and the US west face increasingly searing summer weather, the city’s tourism leaders want to turn San Francisco’s frigid reputation into an advantage.
The New York Times recently reported that tourism officials hope the city’s cool summer weather could lure potential visitors seeking to beat the heat.
“San Francisco has always been a cool break in the summertime and as the rest of the world starts to deal with the effects of climate change, I think it becomes even more compelling,” Joe D’Alessandro, the chief executive of the San Francisco Travel Association, told the Guardian. “Just like in the wintertime people in colder climates go to desert resorts to warm up, [in the summer] they can come to a place that has natural air conditioning like San Francisco.”
It’s a contrast thrown into stark relief this week as much of California braces for another severe heatwave that will bring temperatures of up to 115F. In San Francisco, meanwhile, the temperature is expected to approach a comparatively mild 80F on Monday. But that’s hot for the city where the average September high is around 70F.
Weather-related tourism would be welcome in a city still rebounding from the pandemic – travelers are coming from the US and Europe but the number of visitors from Asia hasn’t yet returned to its pre-Covid level, D’Alessandro says. US gun violence and fears over crime in the city haven’t helped, although FBI data has shown that violent crime in San Francisco is at its lowest level in decades.
“San Francisco has some of the lowest violent crime rates in the country. We’re a very safe city, but reports of violent crime do not make a place seem welcoming,” D’Alessandro said.
While the city could remain a respite as the American west grows hotter, it won’t be immune from the impacts of the climate crisis. By 2100, sea levels are expected to rise two to five feet in the San Francisco Bay Area. California is grappling with a severe drought that has drained reservoirs and threatened hydropower production. Experts say climate change has already begun to diminish the city’s famous fog.
San Francisco is projected to warm by 2-7F by 2100, while other US metropolises face rises of as much as 10 degrees. San Francisco has already warmed by about 2F since 1970, according to researchers.
Still, it has long drawn travelers coming from the state’s warm interior.
D’Alessandro, whose grandparents immigrated to the city in 1910, grew up coming to San Francisco to escape the heat. “When it was 105F in Sacramento for 10 days in a row I used to come to San Francisco.”
The tourism board plans to use that idea in its marketing in areas that face extreme heat, inviting residents of those cities to come cool down in San Francisco. “Frankly, there aren’t that many cities like this where you have to put a jacket on in August.”
