Please help us picture the reality of daily life with WA weather (Seattle: job market, living in)

[jdaisymia]

Hello... I am researching Western Washington, as well as the Cle Elum area, and keep seeing misinformation about the reality of the weather... even in these forums. It seems people like to exaggerate due to whatever they are going through personally and that is not helpful at all! And the data on this site, although helpful, doesn't give a truly clear picture about daily life. So if anyone can answer some questions without exaggerating, I would very much appreciate it!
What my family is most concerned with is going weeks at a time with no sun. We are planning to move from Flagstaff, Az. (7000 ft. elevation, not in the desert) to Wash. to be closer to the rest of the family, and to find a lower cost of living w/ lower housing costs. Flagstaff is very dry overall and after twelve years here we feel like we are going to dry up and blow away! We feel a need to have water around as if we are missing an essential nutrient... but we can't forget that sunshine is also essential. So we want water, we enjoy changing weather and have no problem going about life in the rain, but literally weeks at a time with no sun at all would not be good. A few days of grey/ day with sun/ more days of grey, etc. is entirely different than literally weeks with no day of sun. So that is what I mean by the reality of daily life that we need a picture of. (We also have horses and they can't be in a constant quagmire with no relief.)

Our family is in Seattle and housing is far too expensive there (as it is in Flagstaff!). We are currently thinking about the area around Tacoma and Olympia, Sequim, Cle Elum, and Wenatchee. (The problem with central Wash. is that it would be better to be closer to a larger city and therefore possibly a better job market, and we would also prefer to be closer to the coast.)

So if anyone can help us with a clear picture of the reality of living in those areas as far as the weather throughout the year and whether or not days of sun are interspersed enough to provide relief, we would be grateful.

Thanks!

[allforcats]

Originally Posted by jdaisymia

What my family is most concerned with is going weeks at a time with no sun.
We also have horses and they can't be in a constant quagmire with no relief.

Hi Daisymia. For a moment, let's look at life the way everyone does, subjectively. I love rain and clouds and feel embraced and nourished by this climate. Most people don't like this kind of weather -- for reasons both emotional and biological -- and if it's cloudy and drizzly for more than a couple of days in a row, they hate their life.

So all the posts you've read in which people praise the weather and people say they want to kill themselves in our weather -- it's all true, because all of that is subjective, individual choice of emotional reaction to facts. You have to decide for yourselves if two weeks in a row of dark, thick, photogenic cloudiness and daily hours of nourishing drizzle is a climate in which you can choose to thrive.

No one here lives in a "quagmire". If they did, there wouldn't be millions of human and thousands of equine in western WA. I've known horses in different states and countries all my life, and I'm at the far end of middle age. The horses I've known and seen and observed in western WA during my 26 years here seem quite contented, and most of them are obviously downright happy.

"The reality" of the weather is that it can't be forecasted. It can be cloudy and drizzly for two or three weeks at a time. Or two days. It's different every year. I'm sorry that I can't say it does this or that for sure, because its unpredictability is a fact. But clearly, lots of humans and lots of horses thrive here. Other humans get along. And still other humans spend their time here being angry. Just like anywhere, eh?

Cle Elum is my favorite spot in WA because it's very rural, very quiet, very pretty and somewhat "untouched". (If you ever watched the TV series 'Northern Exposure' you saw what Cle Elum looks like because it was filmed in and around Roslyn, the next town, and the outdoor scenes where filmed in various locations in western WA and they did look like the Cle Elum-Roslyn area.) However, Cle Elum is very very snowy because it's up in the mountains. It has minimal resources because it has a small population. And getting from Cle Elum to an employment location, such as Seattle or even Ellensburg, in their very long winter would often be impossible because of avalanches on I-90 and the rest of the winter would take a very long time entirely in darkness. If you're not a farmer or a telecommuter, I don't know how you'd earn a living up there. But it's a wonderful place for a summer cabin. And for photographing, which is what I do there. I even have three horse friends there! Merry, laughing ones.

The reality of the daily winter life I've experienced for 26 years is drizzle and cloudiness interrupted by something magically called here "sunbreaks", as in "We may see some sunbreaks in the afternoon". That means holes will open in the clouds, blue will appear in patches, everything will get brighter, and here and there, which places change all the time. And then suddenly there's a week when you can see the sun each day, maybe even all day long. It's all a surprise. One of the greatest enhancements of my being I've learned here is to go with the flow and depend on nothing outside myself for my joy

I wish you great happiness in making your choices!

[nullgeo]

Sorry to be gloomy and disappoint ... but the answer to your most basic question is: yes, it can -- and does (often) -- remain cloudy (completely) and overcast and rainy for very extended periods of time ... you can literally go 6 weeks with no sun at all. From Nov. thru Feb you are nearly certain, even on a good year, to experience at least one stretch that long ... period. This is NOT a sunny place outside of June thru 1/2 of Sept. Period.

That said, it IS beautiful all year nevertheless, depending on your personality and resilience, as the previous response notes. It also does not often rain in buckets, resulting in "quagmires" ... in fact, inches of rain considered, we do not rate anywhere near the real bad spots ... only about 40" annually. It will just drizzle and mist you into depression, if you are inclined to favor sun.

Every winter you WILL experience multiple very very long stretches without any appreciable sun. Eastern Washington is drier, but no refuge from the gray in winter, either. And, true, not much work over that side of the mountains.

Good luck. (39 years living in the NW)

[trix4u]

I have been in Bellingham for 6 months and LOVE IT. So beautiful and all 4 seasons! Nice change from where I came from. South West.

[jdaisymia]

thanks for your responses!

No one here lives in a "quagmire".

I said that because a horse person I talked to from the Olympic Peninsula area used exactly that term to describe what she deals with on her property. In doing this research, I've also been warned about rain rot. I'm sure you have seen happy horses, and the fact is they require different care in such wet weather than they do in Arizona, in order to be that happy.

you can literally go 6 weeks with no sun at all. From Nov. thru Feb you are nearly certain, even on a good year, to experience at least one stretch that long ... period.

Exactly the kind of info we are needing. Some people who are depressed there say it is gray for a solid six months with no relief at all. A lot different than six weeks! So, we can assume that four months of the year will be gray in general, but there will be relief from it now and again during those winter months. It is those intermittent breaks that make the difference. In my subjective opinion.

[jdaisymia]

For a moment, let's look at life the way everyone does, subjectively. I love rain and clouds and feel embraced and nourished by this climate. Most people don't like this kind of weather -- for reasons both emotional and biological -- and if it's cloudy and drizzly for more than a couple of days in a row, they hate their life.

Also, I am doing research on behalf of myself, my mother, my brother, his wife, and their three children. So I have to try to find the places that could be somewhat... let's say moderate... instead of an extreme change. While my need for coastal water is strong enough to lead to "half mermaid" jokes and pictures of gray, misty beaches thrill me... my brother would be happy with So. Cal. weather. So we have to find a balance that will work for everyone, at least the majority of the year. And that means I have to pester those in the know for specifics about the towns they live in and what their lives are really like.

Is it true that summers are generally mostly sunny in Tacoma, Sequim, and even Olympia (which apparently has the longest gray winter?)?

[allforcats]

As you're most likely aware, much of the Olympic Peninsula is a rain forest, where it drizzles and rains almost every day of the year. Thus, not many humans and even fewer horses live there. Can't avoid all those water-laden clouds arriving from the ocean, which accounts also for the flooding rains experienced in the western and southern peninsula in early winter. The clouds dump their water in order to be able to climb over the Olympic Mountains, so there's no rain forest on the eastern side of the Olympics.

If your honest feeling is that 9 months of drizzly, cloudy weather is something you'd want "relief" from as you've repeated, western WA is not the place for you. If you can, you should consider visiting in November or December, our cloudiest, drizzliest, rainiest months, and get a look for yourselves.

[jdaisymia]

If your honest feeling is that 9 months of drizzly, cloudy weather is something you'd want "relief" from as you've repeated, western WA is not the place for you.

Wow, now it's 9 solid months of constant gray?? I thought it was 4-6 months of mostly gray winter.

[jdaisymia]

oh, I get it. I read the other "do we really want people moving here" thread and I see that you feel very strongly that you do not want anyone moving to Washington.

This is not a joke, and I would appreciate it if you would keep your very biased views from affecting my fact-finding mission. I am talking about half my family wanting to be with the other half, who have lived in Seattle for over thirty years. This is a very serious matter of finding someplace for a group of family to create a new life where they can be happy and be close to loved ones. I don't care if you want to try to discourage anyone and everyone from moving there.

This is why I made the point about exaggerations and sweeping statements. I'm looking for specifics, and day to day reality. It's not as if, in reality, you don't see the sun for nine months.

[allforcats]

Originally Posted by jdaisymia

Wow, now it's 9 solid months of constant gray?? I thought it was 4-6 months of mostly gray winter.

City-Data's climate charts for Seattle:





I dunno but that looks like 10 months, don't you think? And today we're right on time: it's the middle of September and it's been cloudy and drizzly or showery for two days.

Life is only as grim as we choose and intend to make it. Or as lovely. Washington is wonderful. But only, as you will read in thousands of posts, for those who enjoy damp darkness in the west and searing heat in the east.

I wish you joy in making your choices.