Roberta Recaps Weird Weather Highlights From The Summer
KPIX 5 Morning Weather Anchor Roberta Gonzales answers the questions you never get to ask on-air.
Q: Roberta; how would you sum up the Summer of 2015? -Stan Bunger; KCBS Radio
A: Everything I have known to be true "Weather WISE" in the SF Bay Area for the last 20 years, is thrown out the window. The summer of 2015 was anything but "typical".
The rule of thumb does not apply to the Summer of 2015.
First off, sea surface temperatures globally hit record warmth. So, what does that mean locally?
In July, Monterey buoys should read 56 degrees, instead 64
SF buoys should have been recording water temps at 58 to 59 degrees, instead 5 degrees above normal. To put this in perspective, there were days when even I did not swim with a wetsuit. In fact, there were a couple of days in July when the Lake Del Valle temperatures in Livermore rivaled the Bay water temperatures, which is unheard of.
So when you have warmer water temperatures, you don't have the fog. Without the fog, which is our natural air conditioning, we have record overnight warm lows in Santa Cruz and also in San Francisco. Some of these records dated back to 1875!
Then…
September ended up being the warmest September on record for San Francisco since 1997. Coincidentally, that was the same year we had our last strong El Nino. September temps were 4.4 degrees ABOVE average. In day sticking out like a sore thumb, this past Monday, Sept 21. At high noon, it was 89 degrees in San Francisco -- 3 degrees warmer than in Phoenix!
So when I think of the Summer of 2015, I will think of "abnormal." What do YOU remember best about this past Summer?
Please send weather questions, observations and photos to me, Gonzales@kpix.cbs.com and I look forward to hearing from you!
