Oakland/East Bay weather vs. Seattle

Welcome to a2k, ronildexon..

I like the east bay but haven't lived there so I'll await other's replies along with you. I've been to a large beautiful garden there, but I don't know the whole area very well.

I lived and worked in the East Bay for 50 years before moving to the Sacramento area. A lot depends on which side of the Oakland/Berkeley Hills you are on. On the Bay side the weather is mild. I lived in Albany, Richmond, Berkeley, and Alameda and worked in Oakland for half of those years. I didn't have or need air conditioning in any of those locations, but did make good use of ceiling fans and the cooling evening breeze off the water. There was maybe one week a year when I wished I had air conditioning. Winters get cold enough to need heat in the early morning and then it can be turned off or very low for the rest of the day. Fog is a frequent summer time occurrence, with the hottest part of the year being August through October. The fog usually doesn't stick around longer than 9 am.

I was born and raised on the other side of the Oakland Hills in the Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill area and also worked in the Pleasanton area later in life. It gets very hot in the summer with temps frequently over 90 and winters having frequent freezing temps. You'll definitely need a good HVAC system there.

Weather in San Francisco is down right cold most of the time, especially if you're used to hot summers. They too have warm August and September months but it doesn't get much above 80-85 for a handful of days.

If you are going to be working in San Francisco, you'll want to budget for the high commute expense. If you drive you'll have bridge fare and parking fees. If you take public transit, that's expensive too. Balance that against the higher cost of living there to decide whether to live in the city or the East Bay.

You might also consider the South Bay, the corridor south of San Francisco. Cost of living is less and the weather is warmer than San Francisco, but not as nice as the East Bay.

Regarding the gardening opportunities, you'll be in a gardener's paradise.

Here are some websites to check out for regional climate summaries in the Bay Area.

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/summary/climsmsfo.html

http://ggweather.com/climate/

The weather between the two places doesn't even compare. Seattle, despite the occasional and unexpected sunny days, is right next to a rain forest, the only one in the northern hemisphere. I have been in the Sea/Tac area when it was nice, I've also been there when it rained every single minute of every day for a week nonstop. It sucked.

Where will you be working exactly? I lived in the south bay for 20 years. The weather is spectacular compared to anywhere else other than San Diego. 300+ sunny days/year. Only one or two days where it might get below freezing or so hot you wish you had A/C (that's what those portable air conditioners they sell at Costco are for). Definite gardener's paradise. You can grow stuff all year - and don't forget - citrus ripens in the middle of "winter".

This is not the Washington forum, this is a2k. The tags on the thread are California, relocation, and weather - ronildexon has posted correctly.