Condo facing West/East? Direction of Wind? (Seattle: apartment, houses)

[alermy]

Hi everybody,

I have a couple of questions for those who lives in the Seattle area. I am looking at this condo in the city. It is facing west/east. The living room is facing west and bedrooms are facing east.

Do you think the living room will get really hot in the summer? as we all know lots of houses in the area don't have central air. neither does this one. do you think it's a big problem in the summer?

I am also curious about the direction of the wind in the area. Does anybody know what the direction is usually?

Thanks a lot!

[scirocco22]

I'd assume, yes, a west facing abode will heat up in the summer a bit more than one facing north, for instance, because it's getting the afternoon sun. Years ago, I had a west-facing apartment and it did get hot inside in the summer. However, as we've talked about before, it does cool down substantially at night in the Puget Sound region even on hot summer days. If you open the windows after the sun goes down and let the air in with the help of fans, you'll usually be able to cool your interior down enough to sleep comfortably.

Winds are predominantly coming from the south. You'll see that the elements will damage the south side of a structure more than the other sides. Obviously, though, winds can blow from any direction.

[seattlerain]

Scirocco beat me to it, but I'd just like to add that we usually get south winds during cloudy or rainy weather, and north winds usually come with the sunny, dry weather.

[scirocco22]

Yes, very good point, seattlerain. That's why the south side of structures get so weatherbeaten faster than the other sides is the rain blowing against that side of the house takes its toll. I had to replace siding on two of my houses because of the warping and weathering. A neighbor painted just the south side of his house every year and it held up much better.

And when there is sunny, dry weather, especially during the winter, the wind is blowing in from the north.

[alermy]

Thank you all. That is very good information. Well would you guys say west facing living room is a big disadvantage? If the wind direction is mostly coming from north or south. Will I get much wind if my windows are west/east?

[scirocco22]

It wouldn't be to me but to some, I suppose it would.

There really isn't that much wind in the summer, though ...it will just be a gentle breeze. The wind storms are usually late fall, winter and early spring. I only mentioned opening the windows to let a bit of the hot air out and maybe let a little cool air in and a fan to keep it circulating. For me, that's all I needed. From my perspective, there aren't really that many hot days in Seattle to make it that big of a deal ...but that was only how I felt.

[alermy]

scirocco22, thank you so much!!! you are very helpful!

[LordBalfor]

Actually, to be specific, it kind of depends on exactly where in the Seattle area you are. Up north in the convergence zone it's a bit different, but for most of Seattle, nice weather brings winds from the north-east and rainy weather brings winds from the south-west. I live near the airport and the wind direction is very apparent to us as it determines the direction the planes are landing and taking off. Also, look at the direction the wind blows in rain on the weather radar and you'll see the wind is rare from due south, but rather almost always from the SW.

Ken

[scirocco22]

Ok, if we're getting technical, I think I remember reading somewhere that the "most common" wind direction in the Seattle area is SSW.

Here's a good description of the summer weather pattern from good ol' Steve Pool:

What is Seattle's usual summertime pattern? | KOMO-TV - Seattle, Washington | F.A.Q.

I'm thinking from this that there's plenty of westerly wind during the summer so open those windows.

[alermy]

the place I am looking is called central area. The reason I asked this question is if the wind usually goes NORTH/SOUTH, then when I open both East/West windows, I don't really get much wind flow through my place. On the other hand, if my condo is NORTH/SOUTH facing, then I will have a decent amount of wind flow through my condo. Sciroccs22 said in the summer time, to open the windows to cool the place down. I guess it is important for me to figure out wind direction。