The Cool, Grey City of Love

[Fog over the Golden Gate, 1953.Courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.]

Spare sweater anyone? Confused about what season this is?  Seem like the summer fog is gloomier than usual?  The fog in this 1953 photo looks a lot like the fog of 2011.

And the weather of 1851 wasn’t much different from today’s either.  Albert Benard de Russailh's journal illustrates the old saw "there's nothing new under the sun" (no pun intended) with this description of San Francisco summer weather: "... every day at two o'clock a cold north-west wind rises...which compels you to put on warmer clothes...It is a kind of Mistral that lasts always until four or five o'clock."  Here’s a glimpse into his journal Last adventure: San Francisco in 1851:

Albert Benard de Russailh's LAST ADVENTURE: SAN FRANCISCO IN 1851.

The Cool, Grey City of Love as George Sterling so poetically put it and Herb Caen was so fond of quoting...what else is there to say?

"The Cool, Grey City of Love" by George Sterling, printed by John Henry Nash, 1932. Courtesy of the Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing, San Francisco Public Library.

Here’s a “Foggy Day” musical tribute guaranteed to warm you up; courtesy of Dinah Washington and the Alexander Street Press.

Don’t despair -- the heat of Autumn (our Indian Summer) is closer than you think. Really.

[Market Street with Twin Peaks in background, 1937. Courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.]