This is a cold oasis in California. Beware of 'fogburn'

There's a saying about the denizens of this foggy timber town: They don't tan. They rust.

That's because it's usually so misty, so salty, and so gray here along California's far northern coast, said Don Hofacker. But sometimes, he emphasized, it does "get pretty doggone hot."

"It does get extremely warm here," Hofacker said. "It gets up to 82 at times."

Hofacker, 69, is a docent at the maritime museum on the Samoa Peninsula, the narrow spit of sand on the Humboldt Bay where he lives. As he mused about his hometown, the afternoon temperature was 56 degrees.

This was 24 hours after both Burbank and Woodland Hills broke daily heat last week, topping out at 112 degrees.