Better to live wet and cold or hot and smoggy? (Seattle: homes, job market)

[bgilman]

My wife and I are thinking of moving to Port Townsend from Southern California and are wondering how locals feel about the area's weather, its arts, its storms and power shortages. It seems like our coldest nighttime temperatures are warmer, in general, than PT's daytime temps. Also, I've heard from PT locals that one of the drawbacks is that if you need to see a doctor, a specialist, someone other than a general practitioner, then you need to go into Seattle. Thanks.

[Hemlock140]

There are some specialist closer, in Silverdale, but sometimes you could have to go into Seattle. As for the weather, I also prefer cold and wet to hot, and the nasty windstorms are not frequent, 1-2 times a year at most. Port Townsend is at the tail end of the rain shadow, so gets more sun and less rain than Seattle and the Eastside. Here in Sammamish we average 66”, Seattle 44”, Port Townsend 20”. It’s on our shortlist for moving when we retire, close to family in Port Angeles and Sequim and still reasonably close to Seattle.

[bgilman]

Thanks for the heads up.

[homesinseattle]

Port Townsend is a great place, incredible arts and culture for it's size.

[GraceKrispy]

Between Southern CA and Port Townsend, I'd choose PT in a heartbeat! Smog is nasty stuff, and the cool, clean air in PT will be a salve to your lungs. It's a lovely area. If you are content to be out of the big city and know that travel to Seattle will require a little planning, it'd be a great location.

[daberkow]

The humidity will make 40 degrees feel like 25. Unless you are one of the "I hate things most humans like" people, visit in January before committing.

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by daberkow

The humidity will make 40 degrees feel like 25. Unless you are one of the "I hate things most humans like" people, visit in January before committing.

Not true. Wind makes 40 feel like 25, not humidity. Actually, it feels milder when wet/cloudy because the clouds keep it warmer.

[misscross]

Southern California is a vague label that covers a huge area. If you can be more specific it would probably help with getting more detailed answers

[Dendrite]

Agree with misscross as above. Also OP since you didn't inquire about the job market in Port Townsend, I assume that you're retired or won't be needing to find employment locally? Otherwise the job market in PT is limited at best.

I'm with Hemlock. I prefer a calendar with the summer months removed. So western WA weather suits me just fine despite the winter season dreariness that we can have.

[perigee]

Start searching google flights and book a visit for next month, December has shorter days, but they tend to be clearer and sunnier (which means colder because clouds trap heat at night). For anyone living in that area I assume that the west facing Olympic mountains mean an earlier sunset, so winter days are even shorter. Remember northern WA is actually north of big chunks of Canada, Maine and many parts of the US, if you want to move up here it's very long summer days and short deary winter days and coming from a sunny area that might hit you harder then you expect.

Lots of people move here and are fine the first couple of winters, but by the third or fourth they become very bitter, just read the Seattle forum with all the angry people that either moved away and still come back to complain or are stuck because of jobs, family, house, etc..

The OP is beautiful, but remember in the summer time you will get swamped with tourists, ferries will backup and driving around will mean big traffic delays not to mention a toll. Basically you can't hit the mainland without paying extra money to either the bridge or the ferries and you couple that with the fact that everything is always going to cost you just a bit more because of where you live, figure out what that will do to your blood pressure.

Come for a visit, look at prices of things, figure out if you can budget for yearly winter vacations to some places warmer and maybe even think about becoming snowbirds, plenty of them in the area. Snowbirds come north in the summer and go south in the winter, usually in RVs, sometimes they have a home in one place where they spend most of the year or some have homes in both and split their time as wanted.