The weather in San Francisco is overrated, it's always cold and windy and there are never any seasons.
I LIKE seasons. I LIKE snow. I LIKE watching leaves fall in the autumn and rebirth in the spring. I LIKE sweaterweather falls and, cold winters, and hot summers.
San Francisco's climate has "mild," going for it. It seems to be permanently pants and tee shirt weather (but don't forget your jacket). The summers (sept/oct) are nice, but limited for what you expect in California. It's frequently windy when the sun is shining, and the fog is constantly sitting nearby, threateningly.
The best you can say is SF's weather is different, but I certainly do not understand the hype.
SF's weather is a steady climate without much variance, where it typically only rains two weeks of the year. No freezing temperatures, no heat waves, just a cool climate that doesn't have much variance.
South Bay is similar, but warmer and almost perpetually sunny throughout the year too.
Probably grass is always greener type thing.
1. Places where during certain times of year, sitting on a bench for a few hours will cause you to die from exposure to the elements.
2. Other places where you can sit on a bench all day on any day of the year and walk away from it.
The Bay area is definitely in category 2 and that is a nice thing.
Most of the microclimates in the Bay Area are disgustingly peaceful, but as the parent notes, there is a distinct lack of seasons (there's approximately two: dry summers, wet "winters") and real weather (I greatly missed thunderstorms when I was there).
A lot of sweaters get sold at Fisherman's Wharf during summer months to people caught unaware.
We lived in the Sunset district which was manageable but later moved to Mill Valley and the summers were _very_ brutal, to me. A couple other office mates lived in San Rafael and I distinctly remember everyone complaining about the heat and sweating.
We all eventually bought air conditioners for our bedrooms just so we could sleep comfortably at night.
But brutal is all a relative term. Someone growing up in the south with no access to AC would not call it brutal while I and my other office mates who were used to AC were "dying" without it
Summers in the bay area are not even remotely brutal.
It tends to be cold, wet, damp, foggy and bone chilling early morning. Not like Winters/Summers in Chicago brutal, but definitely the time I struggle with most (as a new yorker who clearly has to weather acclimated here, I know it sounds ridiculous)
