According to the Kȍppen Climate Classification system, San Francisco has “dry-summer-subtropical” or “Mediterranean” climates (Csa and Csb). Data from NOAA, beginning in 1946 (figure 3), shows that from 1946 to 2013, average yearly temperature has increased from 54.8 F° to 58 F° with some fluctuation between. On average, precipitation declined from 11.07” in 1945 to 3.39” in 2013 (figure 4). However, there has been a trend of higher precipitation, just a huge plummet in 2013, as opposed to 2012, where it was 21.48”. There are no records for 2014, however, California as a whole has experienced an intense drought this past year (Lindsey, 2014), which in 1983 saw a huge spike in precipitation, with 38.34”, which indicates a potential flood. The …show more content…
Davidson (SF Rec & Park, 2014) and lowest is at sea level. As far as artificial features, the Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest building in the city, at 853 feet. However, the new Transbay Tower, currently under construction, will be 200 feet taller, thus laying claim to highest feature in San Francisco (Huet and Cote, 2014). The San Francisco Bay watershed extends 4600 square miles and is the largest Pacific estuary in the Americas (EPA 2014). Most of the surface water starts as rain and/or snow that lands within the watershed and flows downstream through the Golden Gate Strait. After the Gold Rush (1840’s and 1850’s), large volumes of sediment from erosion upstream as well as from hydraulic mining flowed into the Bay and surrounding tidal wetlands were diked or filled in. Many small streams originating at high elevation points, such as Islais Creek which begins at Twin Peaks and channels out through the southeast neighborhood of Bayview/Hunters Point (Cutler 2006). A number of these small creeks are directed through viaducts or culverts. San Francisco’s use of land has deeply effected its physical landscape. Urban and industrial development, as a whole, has led to the loss of wetlands, alteration of freshwater inflows, contamination of water, sediments and biota and declines of fish and wildlife species (Bourlion, 2012). One of the largest neighborhoods, Sunset District, was at one point mostly windswept sand …show more content…
Like the Mediterranean, urbanization, tourism and industry have resulted in pollution, loss of open spaces, destruction of coastal ecosystems, degradation of biodiverse marshland. Urban heat islands etc. This is especially the case in rapidly developing economic powerhouses such as China. As the Pacific Plate moves Northwest, causing more earthquakes, California will move northward towards Alaska and by 250 million years from now, a second Pangea, called “Pangea Ultima,” will form as a result of subduction of the North and South Atlantic. San Francisco will be much closer to the equator, under the influence of the ITCZ causing more tropical weather and possibly influencing the biome to become tropical (scotese). As far as the next hundred years, if the Pacific Plate moves Northwest at a rate of about 3-4 inches a year (PNSN) or 25-35 feet in a hundred years, it can effect San Francisco in that as more land moves northward, less of San Francisco will be near water. This can disrupt the way proximity to the coast regulates temperature, resulting in more climate variation as well as the presence of fog drip, of which many plants are adapted to relying on. It’s difficult to make accurate predictions of what may happen to climate and biomes which are very complex and sensitive, however, it will no doubt disrupt processes that are adapted to the relative stability of San