European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 17, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge rises above the layer of fog on the san Francisco Bay. By Jane Gross new York times rom june until August a spectacle unfolds almost every night Between the Art Deco towers of the Golden Gate Bridge which stand like sentinels Between the Ocean and the Bay. It is there in san Francisco that the fog comes in sometimes in great cascades like rolling surf that obliterate the 746-foot towers other times in narrow Curling ribbons that the Sun shines through. Every time you see it it s a Little different like fingerprints said Edwardell a tour guide at the Point Bonita Lighthouse at the Northern tip of the Gate where there can be More than 2,000 hours of fog a year. Following close behind the fog is the Mournful music of fog horns which Are slowly giving Way to More economical electronic devices. One of the first warnings comes from Point Bonita which had the earliest fog signal on the West coast a 24-Pound Cannon that beginning in 1857, was shot half hourly in fog season and wore out its artillerymen. Then Corne the thro tier trumpets at the mid Span of the Golden Gate Bridge the air horns at Alcatraz and Angel islands and the final Calliope of noises at the Bay Bridge to Oakland 11 different sounds each specific to a pier. The fog is one of the reasons san franciscans think their City is such a singular place with geography and climate All its own. Virtually everyone there is an Amateur meteorologist and can speak with authority of Micro climates prevailing westerlies pressure systems currents and the difference Between the advection fog there in the Bay area and the tule fog that closes highways in Winter in the san Joaquin Valley. Local people Crow about the fog As if they were on the payroll of the chamber of Commerce. When an outsider complains that it turns summer to Winter the natives counter with talk of natural  when an outsider says it is Damp to the marrow of the Bone they cite the moisture that nurtures redwoods and makes azaleas Bloom. When an outsider asks How to dress in this fickle climate they demonstrate How to Peel sweaters off and pile them Back on from one hour or one neighbourhood to the next. Civic Pride aside the banked cascading fog is like nothing else in the United states according to orman Granger a meteorologist at the University of California at Berkeley who says Bay area conditions Are duplicated Only in Labrador Santiago Chile Cape town South Africa and the Canary islands. The fog acts As it does in san Francisco because of a major breach in California s coastal Mountain Range the mile wide Gap that is known As the Gate. In late Spring a High pressure system builds off the Pacific coast. As summer temperatures heat up the Central Valley the warm air rises. Cool moist drafts carried on the Westerly winds Are then sucked through the Gate and into the Inland Low pressure zone. As temperatures in the Valley moderate the fog withdraws and the Cycle begins again. The Bay area fog is isolated in certain areas because of Topography prompting Telephone Calls to friends a few blocks away to ask about the weather. We do not have a climate said Granger. We have  the Mission District and Potrero Hill in the Eastern part of the City Are sunny because they Are on the Lee Side of a string of mountains that acts like a dam. Engineer works on a foghorn under the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge. Not the Sunset and Richmond districts by contrast abut the Ocean on either Side of Golden Gate Park and Are often curtained in woolly fog for Days at a time. North of the City it is possible to flee the fog at the top of mount Tamal pais. To the South the sky clears before Burlingame with the fog trapped behind san Bruno Mountain. The Golden Gate Bridge boasts several Micro climates according to Tom Andrade the maintenance superintendent. There Are times when it is 70 degrees at one end of the 6,450-foot Bridge and 50 degrees at the other. And under the deck where the wind whips and the Sun never shines workers Wear Long underwear in july and watch the nozzles on their paint guns freeze. For Andrade fog and fog signals Are objects of Devotion As they Are for Many people there. In a loft of the machine shop at the foot of the Bridge he lovingly displays a four foot solid brass Dia phone air Horn the last of its kind in the United states which was replaced with a More modern diaphragm Horn two years ago. Now the diaphragm horns Are also threatened coast guard officials say because electronic signals Are less costly to operate and repair. The Bay area is the last place in the country to rely on the old air horns because of preservationist sentiment but a recent coast guard reorganization has absorbed the local District under Southern California command. Fighting to preserve the air compression horns is Wayne c. Wheeler a former coast guard official who runs the . Lighthouse society a preservation group. They make a terrible sound like r2-d2," Wheeler said of the electronic signals. Not so said it. William Meyn of coast guard Headquarters in Long Beach. It s a matter of what you re used to he said. It s like when the refrigerator stops humming you think something s not  Page 16 the stars and stripes sunday july 17,1988