Seattleites Who Have Lived In Hot Places (Olympia, Prescott: transplants, to live in)

[GraceKrispy]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

Wow, that explains it. I was up in Snohomish County by the water and it was a little cooler. Back in Seattle now, having taken my third cool off shower of the day, still resisting (for some silly reason) turning on our AC. Still hot in the house, about to cave and turn it on .

I would *definitely* turn on my AC if I had it! SO hot right now in our west-facing, upper level apartment! Sweat is literally dripping down my back (maybe because it's actually 95 in my apartment, according to the thermostat).

[Thx-1138]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

I would *definitely* turn on my AC if I had it! SO hot right now in our west-facing, upper level apartment! Sweat is literally dripping down my back (maybe because it's actually 95 in my apartment, according to the thermostat).

I have an air conditioner because my place gets a lot of exposure.


But, sometimes I might run it 10-15 days a year.


It's been 30 years, but I remember getting some whopping electric bills in So. Cal, and that was just for a "spot" cooler in my TV room, not the whole house.


I pay about $35 a month here, back in So. Cal I used to get $200 electric bills in summer and in winter, I had electric heaters, I'd get $300 electric bills in winter, people don't realize the desert heats up quickly, but cools off quickly too as there is nothing to hold the heat.


I was very pleasantly surprised by the weather up here, I actually get glum when I see a cloudless day.


Thx

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by Thx-1138

I actually get glum when I see a cloudless day.


Thx

We definitely think overcast and 50 degrees is about the perfect weather for outdoor activities. If the sun is out.... it's too dang hot to be in the sun.

[Thx-1138]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

We definitely think overcast and 50 degrees is about the perfect weather for outdoor activities. If the sun is out.... it's too dang hot to be in the sun.

Yes Diana, I don't seem to need more sun than just to see by.


That hot sun will turn a person to wrinkles decades before their time, these sun worshippers pay for it dearly down the line!


Not to mention skin cancer...


These long, hot summers have got to go!


I believe it was 1999 I came back to Issaquah from spending a year in Twin Falls Id. (a place you couldn't pay me to live in, has the kind of "weather" I want to stay away from) but we had some 93 straight days of rain to welcome me back, well into June, that's the PNW I miss!


Thx

[Yorkshire Kooky]

Could you all please hang on to this heat until I arrive on Monday?

[Thx-1138]

Originally Posted by Yorkshire Kooky

Could you all please hang on to this heat until I arrive on Monday?

Projection for next week is partly cloudy and highs in the low-mid 70s, certainly not ideal, not enough clouds for this time of year, but I'll take it!


So Cal is going to be clear skies with highs around 90.


Thx

[Yorkshire Kooky]

The temperature sounds similar to here - where it's Winter

[USDefault]

Originally Posted by 509

Moving to western Washington and Oregon means you will be living in cold, dark weather for a very long time each year. I never lived in Seattle, but did live in Vancouver, BC. ...


The weather in western Washington and Oregon is the worst in the US outside of Maine. Winter is cold, dark, damp and just awful. Summer for the three months is tolerable. ...


So proceed with caution. Visit in winter....for a couple of weeks. Then realize that you will be living that for nine months a year.

It's not like this today, not even close. Winters are shorter and milder. Snow is rare west of the mountains. You start to get cold, rain and wind in November, but this usually is over by the second week of February, when temperatures start climbing into the 60s. Spring now arrives early (though it didn't this year). And freezing temps in winter also are rare. Much more common to have winter temps in the high 40s, sometimes low 50s during the day. East coast and midwest winters are much worse than PNW winters if you are west of the mountains and near sea level.


Don't take our word for it; follow the money. Vintners are buying up land, pouring money into production, and growing a ton more product in Oregon, including grape varieties they never could have kept alive 50 years ago. There now are grape-producing regions in Oregon, at elevations that previously never could have supported viable vinyards.


That's all changed now. See, e.g., link one, link two. From one article:

When the pinot noir pioneers arrived in Oregon from California in the 1960s, they had to contend with shorter growing seasons, more frost, winter freezes and more rain during harvest time, Jones said. They adjusted their farming techniques, and the climate became milder.


Now, "we're in the sweet spot," Jones said in his office in Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, where he is director of wine education and a professor of environmental studies.

I haven't been in the PNW too long, but ask anyone who has, and they'll tell you winters are noticeably, undeniably, drastically different from fifty years ago. And even this pace of change is accelerating all across the U.S. West coast. Your "nine months a year" comment is both seriously outdated and wrong.

[homelessinseattle]

Go for it.
You'll be alright the first couple years......

[Hemlock140]

While I have spent a lot of time in the central valley we lived in Lafayette, CA as a kid where it was 105 almost every year when school started in September, and I hated it. As an adult we lived in much more mild Castro Valley, but that was still too hot for me. It took 40 years but we eventually moved here in 1993, and have enjoyed the cooler, cloudier and wetter weather for the last 25 years. Too bad it's changing for the worst. Yesterday as it got up to 92 in Sammamish, our downstairs only got up to 76 thanks to the triple pane windows that we had installed a year ago. Our bedroom upstairs, however was 80 at 7pm when I turned up the window AC (on high), We would not have been able to sleep without that, making it a nice 67 by 9pm. My greenhouse got up to 107, which the cucumber seem to like, the tomatoes not so much, but they perked up overnight. Fortunately even with this record heat it cools off nicely at night (64 this am) unlike CA where it could be 80 at 6am.