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Here in Alaska there's a great deal of folks that suffer from cabin fever, they don't do anything in the winter time except wait for spring to hit. Winter can be extremely miserable if you don't have somebody to spend it with. My husband and I try to leave at least for a week in the winter months to break it up, my son is very active with motor sports in the winter months so he looks forward to winter. My daughter doesn't like winter so she gets a bit depressed, a great deal of folks turn to alcohol or drugs and that doesn't fix anything.
That's an interesting list. Alaska as #1 is not surprising. It does look like the other states are mostly western ones. All the top 10 except for WV are western states. WA and OR with the famous gloom are not all that high. Perhaps SAD sufferers are not suicidal.
Over the course of a year, Seattle gets about the same amount of precipation as Virginia Beach. However, Virginia Beach doesn't have a truly dry season, so it can rain any given day of the year. During the summer of 1980 when I was living in Seattle, I don't remember a drop of rain falling in June, July, and August. The summer was delightful...lots of sun without the east coast humidity. On the other hand, I hated every summer I spent in Virginia Beach...lots of humidity with yucky 75 degree overnite lows, and many heavy downpours that would cause minor flooding in less than an hour. Winter in Va Bch was perhaps slightly more pleasant than winter in Seattle, but only slightly becasue the temperatures are slightly warmer. When it come to grayness, however, it was just as gray as Seattle.
I got a kick out of your experience with Virginia Beach. I wish those days would return!
Back in 1999, my husband was being transferred and we thought we were going to Seattle. I was thrilled--I really like overcast, cool rainy weather. I think I must have been an azalea in a former life. Then at the last minute the company sent us to the other Washington... not beautiful Washington state but Washington D.C.
I thought "no big deal... according to the atlas Virginia and Seattle get the same amount of rain each year." Well, maybe that was true the first year we lived here. This year we have a drought and watering restrictions. So much for statistics...
I think the statistics are calculated on average precipation over long periods of times. Over the years there are going to be fluctuations on both sides of the norm. I will say that during most of the 16 years I lived in Va Bch...it seemed pretty darn wet to me, and the humidity was extremely uncomfortable every year. DC is not quite so bad with the humidity becasue it is away from the coast, and the summer nights are usually a few degrees cooler than they are along the coast. But DC is bad enough in it's own right. I'd never want to live there.
I assume you were talking about suicide rates in the elderly since this is a retirement forum. I considered Oregon and Washington as part of the Great Northwest when I was talking about suicide rates in the elderly... my source is here...
I spent 18 months a bit South of Virginia Beach, stationed at Damn Neck near the great dismal swamp, in 1977 and 1978.
I found the humidity to be high and uncomfortable.
The precipitation normals are over a 30 year period and they are statistical normals which most people know as an average. In practice, that means a third of the time you'll see less rain, a third more rain and a third will be about "normal." It goes a few years before they crunch all the numbers and recalculate the normals.
Global warming may change all that. It seems like in the last decade, DC has seen drier summers and warmer winters. The summer jet is lower on the continent so there's been more northern air that is drier and fewer days with the notorious "Bermuda High" that sucks moist hot Atlantic air in. Va. Beach is quite a bit south of there so they probably see more humidity.
The Pac. NW has mostly dry summers due to the standing high pressure ridge over the west coast. They get a more or less equal amt of rain but in fewer months and more drizzly days. The east coast gets most if its summer rain in thunderstorms and the occasional hurricane. If you looked at the monthly averages, you would see a distinctly different pattern of rainfall.
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