August 2015
As a real estate agent, I hear preferences, weekly, regarding everything from home details to environment to desired location and amenities. Oftentimes, price cap over personal preferences is what decides their next lifestyle, and whether it includes fog.
Therefore, I felt it appropriate, especially during our lovely, foggy summer to come to the aid of “The blessed and merciful fog!” A sentence I intone, prefaced by a grateful sigh, during heat waves, as it enters the Golden Gate.
Originally, from Pennsylvania and its four seasons, imagine my delight when I moved here and found a fifth season. Fog! Eventually, I took a six-month course on how to recognize our seasons in order to mark time better.
Per Wikipedia, “Fog is a complex atmospheric phenomenon. It is a visible mass consisting of cloud water droplets or ice crystals suspended in air at or near the Earth’s surface. Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud, and is heavily influenced by nearby bodies of water, topography, wind conditions, and even human activities. In turn, fog has affected many human activities, such as shipping and transport, warfare (such as D-Day), and culture.”
What causes fog? Alaska’s icy waters rise off the ocean floor, meet our warm shoreline during hot weather and create upwelling. Upwelling produces fog and supports plankton that feed our fish and whales. Our western winds move the fog inland. California’s redwood forests receive 30-40% of their moisture from coastal fog by way of fog drip.
What about the present drought? While others reduce garden water usage, fog dwellers’ gardens are watered regularly and for free, as fog commonly produces precipitation in the form of drizzle or light mist.
When is our foggy season? Generally, we are foggiest from mid-June into September. Nearby, historical Point Reyes, one of the foggiest places in the world (along with Newfoundland in Canada), has over two hundred foggy days yearly. For people who love cool weather, it’s refreshing, invigorating, more gets done (including exercise), and it helps focus the mind. To me, it smells and feels like a cleansing dose of fresh oxygen.
Fog has been credited with comforting and reducing symptoms for people with: Multiple Sclerosis, difficulty regulating body temperature, heat intolerance, high blood pressure, circulation problems, dry skin and sleep disorders.
Fog is perfect bird watching weather. It is easiest to identify migrating birds’ silhouettes in the sky during foggy or overcast days.
Fog is peaceful, majestic, quiet, entertaining, welcoming and soothing. Unique shadows are cast and sounds are altered daily. I love watching it move along in the late afternoon, enveloping everything in its path. Soft “fingers” moving up and over our hills and then cascading and softly flowing, with its own clear purpose, down the other side, oftentimes at a rapid pace, and then just stopping, without explanation, halfway through the City, as though posing for a dramatic photo. It’s magical, like Brigadoon, as it appears and disappears. It is, also, a very San Francisco experience.
Given San Francisco is a tourist town, and many travel here during the Summer from all over the world, fog is an alluring attraction. We can’t charge for it or control it. The impressive beauty of this natural phenomenon, once witnessed, is never forgotten.
Danita Kulp is a broker with Kulp & Company (DRE #00922181) who has been selling real estate since 1981 (www.successfulhomes.com). She works with both Buyers and Sellers, both in and outside the City, and can be reached at (415) 637-5823 or kulpofca@aol.com.