Thinking about moving from Seattle to Pittsburgh

[BrianTH]

Some charts (Seattle/Pittsburgh--note the different in scale in the second set)





Interestingly, Seattle's higher-sunshine/lower-cloudiness period is more concentrated into a couple summer months than Pittsburgh's. Most months, Pittsburgh is sunnier/less-cloudy.

[sealie]

I lived in Seattle(Fremont, Ballard, Bothell), and then Minneapolis, and then here. One bit of culture shock for anyone coming from either city is that Pittsburghers are way, way, WAY friendlier than Seattleites (or Minneapolitans, for that matter), to the point where you may think someone airlifted you to Mayberry. I had neighbors bringing over baked goods the week I moved in. Granted that may just be my neighborhood, but my experience is that people are very gregarious here by comparison.

I have only been here a year but I don't think it's that cloudy. I could do with a few more clouds right now.

[CaptainPittsburgh]

Originally Posted by sealie

I lived in Seattle(Fremont, Ballard, Bothell), and then Minneapolis, and then here. One bit of culture shock for anyone coming from either city is that Pittsburghers are way, way, WAY friendlier than Seattleites.

I've known two people that moved here from Seattle. One of them told me pretty much the exact same thing.

Edit: So I don't sound rude, haha, I've always thought Seattle would be a great place to live, just never had any incentive to travel that far...and I suspect it's too expensive for my taste.

[Tinare]

Originally Posted by sealie

I have only been here a year but I don't think it's that cloudy. I could do with a few more clouds right now.

This has been a pretty extraordinarily sunny year. Winter was less gray than usual, at least IMHO. And I agree -- give me some clouds and rain, too (and cold -- I do not like the heat...)

[pman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Some charts (Seattle/Pittsburgh--note the different in scale in the second set)





Interestingly, Seattle's higher-sunshine/lower-cloudiness period is more concentrated into a couple summer months than Pittsburgh's. Most months, Pittsburgh is sunnier/less-cloudy.

you know grinds my gears? the fact that they used different baselines on the sunshine graphs. at a cursory glance it would appear the same but the pittsburgh one starts at 20% rather than 10%. why would they do such a thing? city data, any answers?

[expdxer]

The climate of Seattle and Pittsburgh are really quite different, just as it is comparing any West Coast climate to the Eastern U.S. Summers are far more humid and winters are colder in the Northeast, to state the obvious. The air just feels different overall. No thunderstorms in Seattle and much less snow. It's a marine climate. The graphs may make them appear similar but they really aren't.

[Tirade]

Originally Posted by Tinare

This has been a pretty extraordinarily sunny year. Winter was less gray than usual, at least IMHO. And I agree -- give me some clouds and rain, too (and cold -- I do not like the heat...)

Agreed. December 2011- - March 2012 was the craziest weather I've seen in all of my years here. Mild temperatures, very little snow, high 80 degree temps in March. I didn't even break out my heavy winter gear that season. Further, the weather still hasn't normalized. The Pennsylvania Water Science Center has placed Allegheny County on a drought watch. This year is definitely NOT representative of average Pittsburgh weather!

As for the rest of the thread, I'm not trying to imply that Seattle and Pittsburgh have a similar climate. I'm only saying that it if your main motivation is to get away from cloudy weather, then you should probably move somewhere else. I think the unusual weather over the past 6-8 months has made people forget that late October - March is consistent gray skies (which you can see on Brian's graph).

[Silverwishes]

I lived in Seattle and the surrounding areas for decades and the difference to me is the height of the 'ceiling' on the cloudy days. In Seattle the clouds are so low for days on end it can be almost suffocating. Here, it is cloudy but normally you still can see the top of the buildings and hills.

[escilade18]

Originally Posted by pman

you know grinds my gears? the fact that they used different baselines on the sunshine graphs. at a cursory glance it would appear the same but the pittsburgh one starts at 20% rather than 10%. why would they do such a thing? city data, any answers?

I see what you mean, after reading your comment I noticed that Pittsburgh runs much closer to the bottom half of the average than Seattle does