Is Seattle weather similar to New England? Moving from Vegas! (Pacific: crime rates, house)

[skorpio1177]

I grew up in Rhode Island, 25 years there, before moving to Las Vegas 5 years ago. Well I now have 2 kids and this is NOT the place to raise kids in my opinion. So we're considering a move to the Seattle area. But Im seeing everywhere "the weather this, the weather that, miserable, etc" My question is, is it similar to New England weather? Or is it more severe? Cuz honestly, the sun can be great, but whats the difference if its so hot outside you cant go out of the house and have to put black drapes to keep the heat out or if its raining? And half the days in Vegas the smog is so bad its "cloudy" out with grossness. My backyard is "desert" landscaping, aka DIRT, and infested with fire ants in the summer. So my daughters swing set is now useless for 2 years and the plastic is actually cracked from the dry heat. Her toys MELT outside. You go from running to the car, to running into your job, or whatever store, to running back to the car, to running back in the house. So you cant go outside here anyways. Ok, so all that ranting aside lol, is the weather like it is in New England? Cuz if so Im there....

[scirocco22]

Less severe than New England. Less snow in the winter. Cooler in the summer. Much wetter and damp.

Now, I've never lived in New England, just visited. So I'll defer to others to give details.

[Deep_Vee]

Short Answer…No. They aren’t similar at all.

We have 2 primary seasons.
Season 1: Grey/Cool/Overcast/drizzle. This can last for months on end with very little change. Some might call this Winter, but it really lasts from Late Fall until Early Summer if you were looking at your calendar (November 1 to Late June/Early July). The temperature might vary from 60’s in the spring/fall, to 30’s in the dead of winter.

Season 2: Sunny/Clear/Comfortable. This is what we would call Summer, but it’s a lot like Spring and Fall in most other regions. Temps in the 70’s, no humidity, truly the best weather you will find anywhere. The negative of this season is that it might last 2-3 months, or it might last 2-3 weeks.

As you might imagine this is a total generalization, there are a few snowy days in the winter, and sometimes it drops below freezing. And there are even some sunny days in winter (the last 3 have been beautiful), but you certainly can’t count on them. Summer is also a gamble. There will be sunny days in Summer, but you cannot plan on them, and you can be sure that at some point in the summer when you have an outdoor picnic planned…it’ll be 60 degrees, overcast, and rainy.

The Seattle weather is one of the more divisive issues on this forum, but as a life long resident, the one thing you can count on is that you will have far more Grey/Cloudy days than Sunny Days…and every time you get a sunny day, you’ll almost forget how depressing the clouds can be and remember why you live here.

[allforcats]

I grew up in New York and Connecticut. The weather in the Pacific Northwest is much more gentle than in New England. Please remember that every place is different.

In western Washington, it's RARE for the lowest winter temperature to drop below 34F in the lowlands, and it snows two or three times in the winter, for a few hours, and is usually all melted away by the next morning. That can vary, but that's the general rule. There is no "biting" wind at any time of the year. Winter air is not nearly as humid as New England's can be. Only the most sensitive, or unacclimated, wear woolly hats and scarves and gloves; the rest of us wear jeans, and unbottoned jackets and raincoats.

Summer temps are in the 70s and 80s. A few days -- literally, two to four days, but not consecutively -- are in the 90s. Regardless of the daytime temp, there is almost always an onshore breeze when the sun goes down in summer. Summer air is dry and usually slightly breezy. As a general rule, summer here goes from July 5th through early September, and during that time there is generally no rain. Central air conditioning is quite rare in all kinds of housing here, a testament to how hot it DOESN'T get here.

The definite New Englandish Indian Summer rarely occurs here, but given the right combination of daytime warm sun and nighttime drops in temp, we can have nice tree color in autumn. Not blazing like New England, but pretty.

Rain, in the form of mist or drizzle, or, rarely, showers, can occur from September through March, with lots of fascinating cloudiness. In 24 years here, I've seen maybe a dozen "downpours" lasting about ten minutes. Lots of people here don't even use umbrellas. The drizzle can last for a few days, then take a break for a day or two. During rainy times, there is more humidity than during sunny times, but western Washington has no "mugginess" ever.

Nothing here ever cracks in the sun! Hahahaha! Nothing here ever melts in the sun either! Our stuff just rusts! :-)
We don't often have any smog, all our dirt grows green things, and it's too wet and cool for fire ants.

Does that help?

[jpk]

The weather in the Northwest is not found on the East coast. So no. As said above, there are really two seasons here. Rainy season and dry season. Rainy season is much longer than dry season. Rainy season is cold, humid, and cloudy/dark. Just like in Vegas summers, but for the opposite reason, you will find yourself indoors much of the Seattle rainy season.

When it is cold and humid the chill has a way of sticking to your skin. If you snow ski, you can be in the outdoors by going to the mountains for a few months during the wet season. Otherwise, you can go back to Vegas for those months like I do and come up here for the nice dry season (summertime). :-) The summer from July 5th-September 30th is consistently balmly warm and dry, great for outdoor recreation of any kind.

On the plus side, if you can handle lame weather for 9 months the area is very good for raising kids. Good schools and very low violent crime rates.

[mishigas73]

I lived in New England for 7 years, and moved to the Seattle area about 7 months ago. The weather is definitely not the same.

First, there is way less of a range of temperatures here. When I was in Vermont over the summers, it was not at all unusual to have days that reached 100 degrees. In the winter, a below zero wind chill *seemed* like the norm. Here, that just doesn't happen.

Second, even when it gets chilly, it's not that "bone-chilling" cold that I grew up with in NY and lived with in New England. Even though it is humid here, it's just not that same "nasty cold" that you get in the northeast.

The rain? Yeah, that's not just a rumor. BUT...if you can get through several months of perpetual grey skies, the lovely days that you get are WELL worth it.

(And, on a non-weather related note, the Pacific Northwest kicks Rhode Island's butt ANY day of the year. )

[LordBalfor]

Ditto what the others have said - especially allforcats. Virtually no similarities at all between New England and Seattle weather. No where in the lower 48 has a climate anything like Seattle and the coastal regions of the PNW - very gentle, very mild (though with lots of clouds for much of the year) and folks who come here from the NorthEast or Midwest may think that we have no winter at all but rather a long dreary fall that gradually morphs into a long dreary spring - followed by a short but very pleasant (sunny and dry - with low humidity) summer.

Ken

[Tony from Europe]

I don't like Seattle weather because 260 days per yer are full of clouds
pooh

[Botev1912]

yes that's why 11 of the past 12 days were mainly sunny

[toughguy]

It's been damn nice the past week.....Today it almost feels like late spring. Walked up to Pike Place on my lunch break, man that place is packed.