Do I need AC in August in San Francisco?
 

My family and I are booked at the Savoy Hotel from Aug. 8th thru the 13th. I just reread their web site info and realized that they don't have ac. It seems like a nice place and I did get a good price but I'm a little worried about being hot. Can anybody advise me about the need for ac in August? Thanks.

Patsy,

You will not need AC.

Have a great time!

Typical summer weather in SF is 60-65 degrees. Occassionally it might hit 75-80. I would say that AC is not a requirement.

I personally like to have cool air blowing in the room so I always want AC but that is just my preference.

Last year, it was so cold and gloomy when we hit San Francisco in August that we cut our visit short and headed south. Fifteen miles out of the city the skies were clear and the temperature was 20+.

I hope your weather is better.

Remember the famous Mark Twain quote - "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

The gift shops make a fortune selling $50 sweatshirts to tourists in the summer.

AC? You should worry about a heater, not AC!

Once I was criticized for saying that nobody has an AC at home in the city. I was told that staying in a hotel is not the same. What do I know! Never been in a hotel in SF.

In short, no. There is the occasional night in San Francisco where the heat makes it hard to sleep - but I will bet you real money that it doesn't happen two nights in a row - no matter what month we're talking about. Evenings and nights in S.F. are generally much cooler and windier than the daytime temps, however warm the day, because of the city's location on the water.

That being said, the Savoy IS on a very busy street, so if you are planning on opening your windows at all, you will get traffic noise during the day and delivery truck / garbage truck noise in the early morning hours.

Mark Twain never said that. It's an Urban Legend:

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/twain.asp

It's cool enough that timeof year not to need AC and the evenings are cool enough that you could leave your window open to get that cool air into your room.

Weeeeell...there is always an exception to the rule. Listening to similar statements before we visited SF in the summertime, I took clothes to layer...sweats, etc. We were there on the day that set the high temperature record for that day for THE CENTURY...high 90's. And, I had not planned my layers thin enough. Personally, I would not CHOOSE to stay anywhere without AC. When it is hot in SF (like everywhere else) it will be very hot.

We hardly ever get to SF even though we only live 45 miles away, but we did fly into SFO and were greeted with 100 degrees. That really shouldn't have been a big deal but we were there when they JUST opened up BART at the airport. There were no signs and we ended up lugging all our luggage around the underground parking (which is outside and HOT) because someone gave us VERY bad directions.

Most of the time it will be very mild in SF in summer but ya just never know when it will get HOT. When it does...it can stick around for a day or 3.

Utahtea

When we stayed at the Savoy, the window could not close all the way anyways. The A/C wouldn't have made any difference. It WAS noisy, and we were on the alley.

Check the weather report and the averages via weather on Yahoo or the Weather Channel. August in SF has the fewest days of sunshine of any month except February. Average highs I believe are in low 70s with lows in 50s.

Shhh! Don't ask, you'll jinx it. Sometimes it gets pretty hot and believe it or not, a/c is needed. Usually, it's not.