San Rafael (/ˌsæn rəˈfɛl/ SAN-rə-FE-el; Spanish pronunciation: [san rafaˈel] "Saint Raphael") is a city in and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 census the city's population is 61,271.^[1]

The term "420" when used in reference to cannabis consumption is believed to have started in San Rafael, specifically, at San Rafael High School. Since then, use of "420" has spread throughout the rest of the United States, and much of the rest of the world, in reference to cannabis consumption on April 20 or at 4:20 p.m., the time the original group gathered after school.^[2]

San Rafael has a Mediterranean climate (Csb in the Köppen climate classification).

v t e San Francisco Bay Area
Bodies of water	Bodega Bay Carquinez Strait Clifton Forebay Golden Gate Grizzly Bay Guadalupe River Half Moon Bay Lake Berryessa Napa River Oakland Estuary Petaluma River Raccoon Strait Richardson Bay Richmond Inner Harbor Russian River Sacramento River San Francisco Bay San Leandro Bay San Pablo Bay Sonoma Creek Suisun Bay Tomales Bay
Counties	Alameda Contra Costa Marin Napa San Francisco San Mateo Santa Clara Solano Sonoma
Major cities	San Jose San Francisco Oakland
Cities and towns 100k–250k	Antioch Berkeley Concord Daly City Fairfield Fremont Hayward Richmond San Mateo Santa Clara Santa Rosa Sunnyvale Vacaville Vallejo
Cities and towns 50k–99k	Alameda Brentwood Castro Valley Cupertino Dublin Gilroy Livermore Milpitas Mountain View Napa Novato Palo Alto Petaluma Pittsburg Pleasanton Redwood City San Leandro San Rafael San Ramon South San Francisco Union City Walnut Creek
Cities and towns 25k-50k	Belmont Benicia Burlingame Campbell Danville East Palo Alto Foster City Hercules Lafayette Los Altos Los Gatos Martinez Menlo Park Morgan Hill Newark Oakley Pacifica Pleasant Hill Rohnert Park San Bruno San Carlos San Lorenzo San Pablo Saratoga Suisun City Windsor
Cities and towns 10k–25k	Alamo Albany Alum Rock American Canyon Ashland Bay Point Cherryland Clayton Discovery Bay Dixon El Cerrito El Sobrante Emeryville Fairview Half Moon Bay Healdsburg Hillsborough Larkspur Millbrae Mill Valley Moraga North Fair Oaks Orinda Piedmont Pinole San Anselmo Sonoma Stanford Tamalpais-Homestead Valley
Sub-regions	East Bay North Bay San Francisco Peninsula Silicon Valley South Bay
Transportation Sports

v t e Municipalities and communities of Marin County, California, United States
County seat: San Rafael
Cities and towns	Belvedere Corte Madera Fairfax Larkspur Mill Valley Novato Ross San Anselmo San Rafael Sausalito Tiburon
CDPs	Alto Black Point-Green Point Bolinas Dillon Beach Inverness Kentfield Lagunitas-Forest Knolls Lucas Valley-Marinwood Marin City Muir Beach Nicasio Point Reyes Station San Geronimo Santa Venetia Sleepy Hollow Stinson Beach Strawberry Tamalpais-Homestead Valley Tomales Woodacre
Unincorporated communities	Bel Marin Keys California Park Dogtown Fallon Forest Knolls Greenbrae Hamlet Ignacio Inverness Park Lagunitas Los Ranchitos Marconi Marshall Olema Paradise Cay San Quentin Tamalpais Valley Tocaloma
Former settlements	Jewell Olumpali Taylorville

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