If you live in this part of the Bay Area, you probably don’t have air conditioning

As the Bay Area bakes under extreme heat this week, many residents are sweating in homes without air conditioning. Nationwide 92% of homes have some kind of air conditioning. But thanks to the Bay Area’s normally mild Mediterranean climate and summer fog, the rate is less than half that in parts of the region.

The larger San Francisco metropolitan area, including Oakland and Hayward, has the lowest rate of air conditioning of any major metro area in the country, according to census data from 2021, which includes two Bay Area metros.