Your feeling on sun hours in Seattle? (Olympia: lease, school)

[Tall Traveler]

So we get a low number of sun hours in Seattle area yearly. Are you happy with the sun hours, wish there were more or wish there were less?

[fluffydelusions]

It’s only low by US standards I’d say. Look at places in northwest Europe. Every place there has it worse.

[Ruth4Truth]

Honestly, I never noticed, when I lived in Seattle, except in the depth of winter, but I got used to it.

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by Tall Traveler

So we get a low number of sun hours in Seattle area yearly. Are you happy with the sun hours, wish there were more or wish there were less?

It's low by US standards, and sunny compared to most of NW Europe. Places like London, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin get much less sunshine especially in summer. But yes I wish there was more.

[leastprime]

There's so little sun in the winter that my solar watch goes into hibernation. The winter sun is so weak that my watch never fully awakes even after being put out on our sunny deck.

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by leastprime

There's so little sun in the winter that my solar watch goes into hibernation. The winter sun is so weak that my watch never fully awakes even after being put out on our sunny deck.

This is not a climate problem, it's a latitude problem. Seattle is at 47N.

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by fluffydelusions

It’s only low by US standards I’d say. Look at places in northwest Europe. Every place there has it worse.

Did Olympia finally see the sun this week? Seems like it's foggy down there when not raining. It's closer to open ocean, so maybe that's why.

[LaylaM]

I lived in Seattle for nearly 40 years. Moved out from the Midwest for grad school, married, raised a family and built a life. I always felt the weather was not the best, but during the last 15 years I developed full-on Seasonal Affective Disorder and could hardly take the long, dark months anymore. It came on slowly, over time, but seriously impacted my energy, health, and morale.

Once we moved down to California, I experienced an amazing transformation. The sunny climate we live in, literally, gave me a new lease on life. It's not this way for everyone though. My kids (who were raised in the PNW) and my husband (who was born and raised in the UK) all did fine with it.

[thatguy950]

Needs more, but the real problem isn’t the sun hours IMO, it’s the DARK and LOW rain clouds and seemingly endless drizzling rain. The cold clear days in the middle of December or January are just fine by me, even though they’re still short

[Seacove]

It's not like we control the sun so this is like wishing palm trees could grow in Alaska. Seattle is simply not the place for people with SAD.