Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay region of the Bay Area.
The city is primarily located on Alameda Island, but also spans Bay Farm Island and Coast Guard Island,
as well as a few other smaller islands in San Francisco Bay. The city’s estimated population in 2019 was 77,624.
Geography
Fruitvale Bridge, spanning the Oakland Estuary, connects Alameda in the south to Oakland in the north.
Alameda’s nickname is “The Island City” (or simply “the island”). The current city occupies three
islands as well as a small section of the mainland. Today, the city consists of the main original
section, with the former Naval Air Station Alameda (NAS Alameda) at the west end of Alameda Island,
Southshore along the southern side of Alameda Island, and Bay Farm Island, which is part of the mainland proper.
The area of the former NAS is now known as “Alameda Point.” The Southshore area is separated from
the main part of Alameda Island by a lagoon; the north shore of the lagoon is located approximately
where the original south shore of the island was. Alameda Point and Southshore are built on bay fill.
Coast Guard Island.
Not all of Alameda Island is part of the City of Alameda; a small portion of a dump site west
of the former runway at Alameda Naval Air Station extends far enough into San Francisco Bay
that it is over the county line and therefore part of the City and County of San Francisco.
Coast Guard Island, a small island between Alameda Island and Oakland,
is also part of Alameda and is the home of Integrated Support Command Alameda.
Ballena Isle, an even smaller island, is also part of Alameda.
Climate
This region experiences warm (but not hot), dry summers, and cool (but not cold),
wet winters. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Alameda has
a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated “Csb” on climate maps.
Annual precipitation is about 22 in (560 mm), all rain
(snow is extremely rare at sea level in the San Francisco Bay Area).
Hazards
The low-lying island has seen sea-level and groundwater level rise threaten its infrastructure
and people not just through flooding events, but through the increased liquefaction risk
from more saturated soils. The locations of increasing groundwater-induced risks and
flooding risks[33] (such as from another megaflood)
may be most precise in private insurance company maps.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alameda,_California
Author: Kirill Shrayber, Ph.D.