Summarize the summer and winter temperature differences. During the summer, Bay water is coldest near the Golden Gate, where ocean water enters. You may notice that in the winter, the water near the Bay entrance is slightly warmer than in the rest of the Bay, particularly the north Bay, just the opposite relationship to summertime conditions. Explain why this difference would occur. The plots below show temperature variation along the length of the Bay and from the surface to the Bay bottom.
Temporal variability is shown by plots from different months and different years.
Describe the difference in temperature distribution in different months of the same year. Compare data from the same months of different years. The horizontal axis corresponds to the USGS sampling transect . Negative numbers are distances south of the Central Bay and positive numbers are distances northeast of the Central Bay. The vertical distribution of temperatures at a particular location represents the range of temperatures between the surface and bottom waters at that site.