What’s the weather like in your corner of San Francisco?

I’ve lived in a couple of states with some notable weather extremes — Alaska and Texas. In Anchorage, I remember lots of winter days that the temperature didn’t go over zero degrees Fahrenheit and with the wind chill factor, it was even colder than that. In Texas, where summer was never my favorite season, my Austin friends are suffering through their 84th day of triple-digit temperatures this summer.

So I’ve lived through some weather extremes. But it took moving to San Francisco for me to fully grasp the concept of microclimates. I live in the Inner Sunset, where I can have a view like this on a clear day:

Sunset from the Inner Sunset

Or a view like this on a day like today:

Inner Sunset fog

Living on the west side of town, I’m used to having more fog and cooler temperatures than even a few blocks east of my house (yes, it’s that microclimate-y around here).

Buyers often ask about the microclimate in a particular neighborhood when they’re considering where they’d like to live. There are some general rules of thumb: it’s warmest and the least foggy on the east side of town, while the west side of town is foggiest and coolest. Twin Peaks is the rough dividing line between the two, although fog rolls in quite often through the Golden Gate and covers the bay while only the western edge of the city is shrouded.

But say you’re interested in more concrete weather geekiness than some general rules of thumb. Check out the neighborhood weather station reports on weatherunderground.com. Interested in the temperature in Glen Park? Cole Valley? The Mission? You can also see weather data for the year, so it’s a great place to turn for neighborhood averages and trends. There are a few dozen weather stations covering the majority of the city. Happy weather surfing!