Seattle Weather/Climate Thread (Tacoma, Milton: real estate, homes, to buy)

[Seattletony]

I have read quite a few post on this forum and I find it interesting that out of all major cities Seattle is judged more on its perceived rain fall and overcast skies than any other city in the country. I have lived in Baton Rouge, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, and the bay area and have also traveled to every region of this country but Seattle is home born and raised for the most part. I think people over exaggerate the weather of Seattle especially people from Socal and AZ but I guess its easy when these places only get 8 inches of rain a year and an average of 10 cloudy days. Its funny however that these same people never complain about the close to 200 BAD AIR DAYS A YEAR. Bakersfield south to North Orange County East to Riverside and San Bernidino county has the worst air quality in the country not to mention in most of these places its SIX MONTHS NOT 2 OR 3 OF hell hot weather. So I'll take 40-50 overcast with slight drizzle want to know why?? because I can be out in it without suffering heat stroke or breathing smog. The bay??? uh the bay is not that much different weather wise than the pacnorthwest San Fran gets 20-30 inches of rain fall on any given year its just not as overcast but they do get WET WINTERS. People have this mind set that all of california is like LA and thats wrong Northern California is more like Seattle/Portland than they will admit. The point I'm trying to make is that having sun is only good if you can enjoy it. If your in air conditioning six months out of the year whats the point. Seattle is the most well rounded city in the country the rain makes the air clean and breathable and everything is green. go to a dictionary and look up the word paradise it means garden and thats what Seattle is???

[chris]

those are very good points. However, I wouldn't downplay the number of gloomy days in Seattle each year - it can be depressing from October-March, at least for me. I can't wait to get out of here by February (vacation time).

My real reason for this post was your comment about "clean air", benzene in particular. The levels found in seattle are 10-100 times the levels considered "safe" for human intake. Everyone in the area should be more aware about this cancer causing carcinogen.

Article here:

http://www.king5.com/localnews/environment/stories/NW_110206ENBbenzeneSW.1010bd30.html (broken link)

[Seattletony]

No one is down playing the gray and gloom but you can't look at 4 or 5 months in a year and say thats it. One of Seattle's greatest assets is rain. Can you imagine Seattle if it only got the amount of rain of Phoenix? it would be brown and ugly with a brown sky. No one denies the grayness and wetness of winter Seattle, however these same people who focus solely on the winters in Seattle go to the southwest and ignore smog and extreme heat. As a matter of fact, the air is so dirty you can barely see the sun. I keep everything in proper perspective. The facts are Seattle gets less precipitation than most cities in the south, midwest, and east coast. its just the cloudy days which truth be told aren't that bad. Smog/brown air or overcast its a no-brainer to me.

[WazzuCoop21]

As I am currently living in the Midwest, I know for a fact that we get *more* rain here than Seattle. But, the reason that Seattle has the reputation is because it drizzles and is overcast more than just about anywhere else in the country. Despite getting much more rain in the midwest, it comes down harder, thus accumulating much quicker and still manages to have many more days of partly cloudy or sunny skies vs. Seattle. You can't look at those stats alone. Just my 2 cents.

[compltlyme]

Originally Posted by Seattletony

I think people over exaggerate the weather of Seattle especially people from Socal and AZ but I guess its easy when these places only get 8 inches of rain a year and an average of 10 cloudy days. Its funny however that these same people never complain about the close to 200 BAD AIR DAYS A YEAR. Bakersfield south to North Orange County East to Riverside and San Bernidino county has the worst air quality in the country not to mention in most of these places its SIX MONTHS NOT 2 OR 3 OF hell hot weather. So I'll take 40-50 overcast with slight drizzle want to know why?? because I can be out in it without suffering heat stroke or breathing smog.

I have to disagree with you.. I am from the Palm Springs area of So Ca in Riverside County... and let me tell you we did complain... about the heat, the smog, the traffic, the flooding from the 8 inches of rain we got in those few days of rain.....Tired of hearing everyone else complaining... so much so that we got tired of hearing ourselves complain that we decided to to get the heck outta there!!! And given what we do we could pick anywhere as long as it had high speed connection. And being one that has traveled all over the US we had to choose Western WA State... Because there is no other place like it. ON that we agree I am sure....

I have to say before my first trip here I too thought all it did was rain 24/7 but that is what we were told. And besides...give me rain as long as we can have the green that goes along with it. I am tired of dead and brown!!!!

[nwraider]

Have to agree with the majority on this thread. Having spent my entire life in SoCal (Moreno Valley & Riverside), we got the hell outta dodge two and a half years ago and landed here in the Fife-Milton area, just east of Tacoma. Best move we ever made. The rain does not bother me in the least, even with the torrential downpours we endured in November. And the snow from last week was actually pretty darn cool. It was freakin 80 the other day in Riverside, waaay too freakin hot for December, and November had a couple 90 degree days. No more of that, I'll take my rain and mid 40's any day of the week. And yes, Riverside gets more smog than any part of the country; I breathed that crap every day for 35+ years, so being able to breath clean air (except for the occasional "smog stagnation" or whatever the hell it's called) and see beautiful green trees kicks the living hell out of the alternative- brown, nasty, dirty smoggy crap... Only thing I miss down there is my family and friends, and being able to go to Laker games, but that's what DirecTV is for..

[Seattletony]

Like many, I had the "300 days of sun mentality" thus for college I left home to the "sunbelt" what I found interesting is that most places in the southeast get considerably more rain than w. washington and half the year these places are disgustingly hot and humid. I'm a avid runner and workout enthusiast and running outside was just not happening in Baton Rouge from may to october. So, I decided to head back home (Seattle) to begin life after college and I left again but this time I wanted to stay out west. My main reason for leaving Seattle this time was cost of living and I again I thought sunnier was better to extent but my driving force for leaving was to be able to buy a home I was single at the time. I started to hear good things about Phoenix so I took a trip south and in was in the end of November so it was nice. Its funny how the weather is not considered "horrible" when it is 100 plus degrees with high air pollution. Anyways back to my story. So I happened to be watching the real estate channel and I saw 3 bedroom 2 bath homes going for $110,000 with a pool and my eyes got big so I found a job and moved within a few months. The first year of living in the Phoenix area I was happy because I had a home. Then the novelty wore off and I no longer could take the 180 days of 100 plus weather and the fact that there was no water and the air pollution had increased two fold. Also there is no culture in Phoenix got tired of seeing flat brown and yearned for green and clean. So now I'm back in the Seattle area and I'm not leaving ever again. Rain is this regions greatest asset keeps the air clean and everything is green. I would rather have rain than not have rain. rain=green and clean air, no rain = brown and polluted air i.e. socal, vegas and phoenix.

[scirocco22]

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[compltlyme]

correct me if I am wrong scirocco22 ...having been in your area and Las Vegas in the summer.... With the air so thick and the heat so high you can't even breathe... Palm Springs in the summer is miserable... I know this as I pretty much grew up there. Dry heat or not.... when it is in the 120's it is horrible. And the winters although temps are great.... Having it be 95 on Christmas day is just sad... and aside from that, the snowbirds invade so much so that the traffic is worse in town that anything you see here. It takes one well over an hour to get from one end of the valley down there to the other when back in the late 70's it was only a 20 min drive max. Hundreds of thousands of people crammed into a small area isn't fun. When you get snow down there you better be first on Big Bear or the close the slopes do to crowding... so for ME... the weather in the winter isn't worth the crud you have to put up with. And again....lush green beats dead brown any day of the year. HOWEVER... I am glad not everyone loves it up here...or it would be like So CA and I would have to move again.

[scirocco22]

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