Microclimates and Real Estate Districts

 
People often ask me about the weather in specific areas, so it seems maybe time to start posting about microclimate by real estate zone. Of course, micro climate can be very micro so there will be multiple microclimates in each zone, depending on slope, aspect etc., but some generalizations can be made.

OCSC Sailing School

There are various apps, for Android, and now for iPhone, which draw from the wonderful Weather Underground  weather station data, which can give you more or less present time data on weather in different locations. I love the accuracy of this data- I had an open house out at Ocean Beach on an extremely windy Sunday a while back- the swell was up and there were a bunch of kite surfers out. My weather reports kept saying 10 mph winds, but I was freezing in the foyer and watching the kites rip around and that just did not compute. I finally dug into the Weather Underground app or the weather stations, and sure enough, the Outer Richmond station reported 25-35 mph, with gusts to 45, which made me feel a lot less crazy. 

SanFranciscoWeather

So, you can use Weather Underground weather station data, on your phone or computer, to compare the weather in different zones. As discussed ad nauseum, there are generalities- east is warmer then west, south facing is warmer than north etc.

Acme.com

Notice, above, the three different weather forecasts for inland, bay and coast? If you don't like the weather, you don't have to go very far. Since your home can't move though, it's good to choose a climate you prefer when you are making a purchase. In the next post I will begin to make my way across the real estate maps of the city and Marin and blather on about climate, parks and open space, walkability and the like for each zone or town. In the meantime, here's the "super scientific" (not, but close enough) map from heyneighborhood.blogspot.com for San Francisco, and a cool little write up on Marin microclimates here.

Personal Microclimate

I visited some friends today who live in a beautiful east/west running valley in West Marin. It was wonderful to be with people as attuned to (obsessed with?) microclimate as I am. Being in a valley, they are very attuned to their location, and how it affects how much sun they get at this time of year. Their property is on the south facing slope, a few hundred feet up from the creek, and because of the direction the valley runs, they are largely spared the prevailing (cold) NW wind. Their neighbors a few houses down at a lower elevation get much less sun and are more prone to frost, since the cold air flows down the valley.

Beyond the overall issue of warmth and energy use, microclimate preference is a somewhat personal thing. If you like being an early riser you'll like an eastern exposure, especially for bedroom and kitchen. If you are a later sleeper, and/or like your home flooded with light during cocktail hour, you may prefer a western exposure. If you like to cook using herbs and vegies from your garden, you will love a walk out terrace or garden to the south, and if you are an artist and like the cooler, more consistent light from the north, you'll like your studio facing that way. If you are particularly sensitive to cold you'll want a southwest exposure.

Cats have this microclimate thing DOWN

In the city, a full floor flat would be lovely, so light from all directions would fill your home at different times throughout the day. In a single family home you'd need to be on flat terrain, or the top of a hill to be exposed to all the directions. Of course, other buildings and trees can also act like hillsides and block your sun exposure.

Armaclad Windows

Now's the time, I say again, to go look at the neighborhoods you are considering, at say, before 10 and after 2, and see where the sun is. There's not much that is sadder than finding out you live in a shadow 6 months out of the year, AFTER escrow has closed, the movers have driven off and the kids have started school.

"Stand in the place where you are, now face north"

OK, now that I've got the tree rant out of my system (for now), this weird November in June weather has me turning to the crux of what I think is most important about property location; the interaction between weather and topography, ie the slope (steepness of terrain) and aspect (orientation - North, South, East, West) of a property relative to our marine influenced Mediterranean climate.

GOES.NOAA.GOV

I will admit, numerous other factors; schools, architecture, walk-ability, density, crime levels, and access to open space and transit, do powerfully affect livability and property values. (Lots of links on the right for more local detail on these subjects.)

My feeling though, is that slope/aspect/climate interactions ultimately trump these (if not actually determining them in the first place) in terms of daily quality of life. Plant life and vernacular architecture all over the world reflect the diversity of these interactions.  Thus I shall begin a series of posts about our many local micro-climates and how they got that way, as soon as I can untangle all the interlocking parts enough to figure out where to start.

http://tornado.sfsu.edu/geosciences/classes/m356/Pastlinks_F2004.html

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com

Happy November in June!