A shower or two possible this morning with partly cloudy skies for the afternoon. High 63F. NNW winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%..
A few passing clouds. Low around 50F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Updated: April 13, 2026 @ 7:12 am
Editor,
As a long-term Burlingame resident, the airport noise has never been much of an issue. As a matter of fact, it was rather rare to hear much of anything except when the weather patterns dictated a course change so the planes could safely land. Conversely, rarely were the planes noticeable during takeoff. This has changed dramatically.
Now, the rumbling from the planes taking off is constant at all times of the day. In days gone by, the departures and arrivals were mainly made on runways 28L and 28R. Twenty-eight denoting 280 degrees, the prevailing wind direction at SFO. Now departures are predominantly made on runways 1L and 1R (10 degrees). The start of the runways is directly adjacent to Highway 101 resulting in the engines pointing directly to the communities to the west of the airport (i.e Millbrae, Burlingame, Hillsborough and San Mateo). This natural amphitheater of the area is the recipient of the jet blasts each and every time. This noise pollution probably affects something near 100,000 people day in and day out.
All this happens except when the wind is blowing from the 280 degree direction at 20 mph or more and they use 28L and 28R for departures. Magically, the noise is gone. Having monitored this, I cannot link delays to the airline schedules due to this change in departure runways. SFO is acting as a bad neighbor and needs to mitigate this ongoing nuisance.
Victor Gray
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(1) comment
This is a very accurate description of the airplane back-blast noise that has been plaguing residents in our area for several years now. SFO has been reluctant to acknowledge this significant problem, let alone address.
I highly encourage anyone else suffering from SFO airplane take-off noise to check out www.sforunwaynoise.com. This group is currently working to apply pressure to SFO to address this problem, and the more citizens that are involved, the better chance we have to effect change.
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