Climate Classification: San Francisco and Salt Lake City

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Table of Contents

San Francisco
Salt Lake city, Utah
Works Cited

The practice of gathering and classifying information regarding different climatic conditions of the world has become an important way through which effective understanding of various climatic patterns and seasons can be attained. This paper takes a critical look at the Koppen climate classification system of San Francisco city and Salt Lake City, Utah.

San Francisco

Physical geographic description

San Francisco is one of the major cities in the United States with a population of about 7.5 million people (Haug 646). It is located on the West Coast and closely stretches and borders the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The city has several Islands which surrounds.

Some of these islands include Angel Island, Almeda Island, Yebra Buena Island, treasure, and Alcatraz Islands. Besides, it has offshore uninhabited islands called the Fallaron which covers an area of 43 kilometers. In total, the city occupies an area of 600 kilometers (Haug 646).

San Francisco city can be best described by its famous landscape which has more that 50 hills. Settlements which have developed along the hilly areas have come to be named after the hills. Some of the neighborhoods include Russian Hill, pacific Heights and Nob Hill (Metcalf 444). San Francisco’s mount Davidson forms that highest hill with a height of about 282 meters. In addition, the city also has faults like Hayward and San Andreas which are areas that attract earthquake activities.

Figure 1: A figure representing the map of San Francisco

The map of San Francisco.

Climate

The climate in San Francisco has been described as a cool-summer Mediterranean climate (Wang and Overland 46). Studies indicate that it is characterized by dry summers and moist mild winters (Wang and Overland 46). The moderate temperatures swings mostly experienced in the city are due to the three water bodies surrounding it.

Using the Koppen climate classification, San Francisco has a climate classification which falls under the Csa and Csb categories, that is for dry summer subtropical climates. San Franciso experiences seasonal temperature variations with Koppen-Geiger system classifying them at 18-22 degrees Celsius high and 11-13 decrees Celsius low between May and October (Jin and Shepherd 682).

Seasonal changes, precipitation averages and temperature changes

In terms of seasons and temperature changes, San Francisco unlike many cities in the Mediterranean, does not experience very warm summers and relatively mild winters. Instead, its summers are mild, a factor that is attributed to regular summer fogs and onshore breeze caused by upwelling cold surface waters. Its temperatures are moderate, but during winter, they fall down to freezing points.

Its high temperature annually stands at 65.1 Fahrenheit and low at 51.4 Fahrenheit (See figure 2). Wang and Overland indicate that in a year, San Francisco has 67 rainy days and a precipitation average of 518.16. Besides, it has 105 cloudy days and 260 clear days in a year (45).

Figure 2: A climatograph showing temperature and precipitation averages for San Francisco

Temperature and precipitation averages for San Francisco.

Climate control systems

The climate control for ocean currents in San Francisco has been set in place due to the fact that the movement of water in the Mediterranean influences climate changes (Stewart and Oke 922). In this city, ocean current control system has been set in all weather stations along the coast to check on the temperatures whether they make the city warmer or cooler.

It is important to mention that the moderate temperatures experienced at certain times in San Francisco are due to the southwest movement of ocean currents along the coast.

Bio-geography

Mediterranean climate zones vegetation have been considered to have a close association with scrub, woodlands and forest biome (Wang and Overland 46). San Francisco has a distinct climate which allows sclerophyll shrub-lands to thrive (Metcalf 444). These are mostly referred to as chaparral in California. Its natural vegetation has been adapted to survive over long period of times. Its vegetation comprises of herbs, grasses, shrubs, fruit trees, deciduous trees and evergreen trees.

Figure 3: A figure showing a portion of San Francisco biome

A portion of San Francisco biome.