If you ever wanted to spend a long weekend in Pittsburgh, now may be the time.
Pittsburgh ranks as one of America’s coolest cities in midsummer, with an enviable average July temperature of 73.2 degrees, according to federal weather data.
Much of the nation is enduring a dangerous heat wave, breaking records across the Southwest. The high temperature in Phoenix has reached or exceeded 110 degrees on 20 consecutive days.
In Pittsburgh, by contrast, Friday’s projected high is 78.
As an exercise in escapism, we found 10 large cities, one of them Pittsburgh, with some of the coolest July weather in America. Our average temperatures come from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and span the years 1991 through 2020, so they reflect the growing reach of global warming.
San Francisco
Mark Twain once said, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” (Or did he?)
With an average July temperature of 60.3 degrees, San Francisco puts up some of the coolest summers in the Western Hemisphere.
The chill comes from the city’s coastal location along the Pacific Ocean. California’s Central Valley, to the east, works like a vacuum, pulling cool marine air across the city, by one forecaster’s account.
“Today’s high is 62 degrees,” said Dan Luscher, an urbanist and longtime San Franciscan, speaking Wednesday. “If I didn’t read the news, I wouldn’t even be aware there was a heat wave.
“I think San Francisco should start positioning itself as a climate haven or climate sanctuary,” he said, “as these kinds of heat events are only going to get more common.”
Seattle
With an average July temperature of 66.5 degrees, Seattle ranks as one of the nation’s coolest cities in midsummer.
Seattle sits on the same chilly swath of the Pacific Coast as San Francisco, but about 800 miles farther north. To the east lie the Cascade Mountains, a range that shields the city from the cold air of the American interior in winter and from the extremes of heat in summer. There’s a reason why television’s Frasier Crane always wore that suit.
Seattle gets 90-degree weather on roughly four days a year, one local news site boasts. When a heat dome settled over the city in 2021, producing eight days of 90- and even 100-degree heat, the city plunged into crisis.
San Jose
While San Jose might sit on fewer vacation itineraries than the cities listed above, the Californian city boasts an enviable average temperature of 69.5 in July. For an explanation, see its northern neighbor San Francisco.
Portland
With an average July temperature of 70.2 degrees, Portland shares many climatic qualities with other Pacific Coast cities.
But Portland, too, is seeing more 90-degree days in an era of advancing climate change.
San Diego
San Diego enjoys an average temperature of 70.7 degrees in July. And unlike, say, Seattle, San Diego also gets lots of sun. The city makes many lists of American destinations with the most sunshine and objectively nice days.
Pittsburgh
We leave the West Coast now and travel to Pittsburgh, of all places, where July temperatures average a cool 73.2 degrees.
Because of its distance from the coast, Pittsburgh suffers the occasional weather extreme. Back in 2014, temperatures fell into the 40s in mid-August. Leaves began to turn.
“Pittsburgh residents have been known to wear swimsuits and winter jackets during the same week,” a local reporter wrote after an earlier summer cold snap, beneath the headline, “Weather in Pittsburgh is awful for several reasons.”
On the bright side, summers in Pittsburgh don’t get too hot.
“We are close enough to the Atlantic and the Gulf Stream to get some of the moderation associated with being more coastal,” said Neil Donahue, a chemistry professor at Carnegie Mellon University. “We are not all that far north of the Mason-Dixon line, but we are definitely not South.”
Milwaukee
With an average July temperature of 73.3 degrees, Milwaukee stays a tad cooler than Chicago, its southerly neighbor. Both cities reap gloriously cool summer breezes off of Lake Michigan.
Los Angeles
Angelenos love to gripe about the weather, but, in truth, July in Los Angeles is relatively sweet, with an average temperature of 73.3 degrees.
“The one real advantage we have is the beach,” said John Singh, an entertainment publicity consultant in the Sherman Oaks enclave. “So, when it gets uncomfortably hot, we can head out to the coast, where it’s almost always cool.”
Detroit
Detroit, like Milwaukee, benefits from its Great Lakes address and from sheer northerliness: The city sits a stone’s throw from Canada. Average July temperature: 74.1 degrees.
Boston
Among large East Coast cities, Boston seems to do the best job at resisting summer swelter. Its average July temperature is 74.1 degrees.
“What I like most about it is, at least in the early mornings, it is cool enough to walk to work, which is one of my favorite daily routines,” said Gal Wettstein, a research economist at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
“Of course, we still complain about the hot and humid Boston summer days.”