How much winterizing of the wardrobe is necessary? (Seattle, Bellevue: buying, school)

[angelenogirl]

In planning for our move I've been buying the kids cords and sweater tights, etc., but it just occurred to me that maybe it'll be too cold to just throw on some winter tights. So is it full on snow pants and ski mask weather, or will my daughter still be able to wear dresses in winter (it's extremely difficult to get her to wear anything else!)?

I know it doesn't snow that much, but I have thin-skinned SoCal children, so I'm just trying to prepare.

[Kayela]

I wear skirts all the time. A pair of the thicker, opaque tights in the winter with a pair of boots are exactly the right warmth for me, but I did come from a state with pretty brutal winters, so it always feels pretty nice IMO. Snow pants and ski masks are waaay overkill. You may want them if you go up into the mountains skiing, but snow is pretty infrequent here in the lowlands. We usually get 1 or 2 snowstorms in a year, and the snow is gone within a day or two. The temps are usually in the 40's and maybe 30's.

[Hemlock140]

It depends where you are, in Seattle and the flat parts of Bellevue Kayela is right. Here where we are in Sammamish at nearly 700' we do get as much as 8-10 degrees colder than Seattle, sometimes a few days at 17-20 and even hit 10F a few years ago for a couple of days.

[BellevueNative]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

It depends where you are, in Seattle and the flat parts of Bellevue Kayela is right. Here where we are in Sammamish at nearly 700' we do get as much as 8-10 degrees colder than Seattle, sometimes a few days at 17-20 and even hit 10F a few years ago for a couple of days.

Yeah, but do you go to work, or send your kid to school, in ski pants and a mask? This would be seen as overkill and neurotic by most people.

OP, your kids will be fine in jeans or normal pants and a winter coat. Or a dress/skirt with tights (they don't even need to be sweater tights probably...I don't have any of those). Warm gloves (not necessarily ski gloves, just something like wool/cotton (cashmere for adults!) gloves are good to protect the hands from getting chapped.

[azoria]

You don't need to be so much 'winterized' as 'waterized'.

Because once you get wet--you're wet. And cold. Cold and wet. It's difficult to dry out and warm up once your hair and shoes and socks and gloves and coat are all wet.

Need hat and waterproof boots and gloves and coat. Clothing that gets wet and can be removed. Dry underneath, hence not so chilled.

This is the wettest place you will ever live.

[Kevin98103]

It's all relative, some people feel like they are Moses parting the sea (like above), other some people think it's a bit much to even carry an umbrella. I walked from Capitol Hill to my office downtown and for years just relied on an umbrella, a jacket and the awnings to keep from getting wet or freezing to death, but I usually tried to step over puddles and that helped. Since downpours and bitter cold are rare, it was rarely a problem.

[angelenogirl]

Thanks so much for the insight! I didn't mean to sound like a freak with the snowpants and mask stuff; I was just being slightly goofy.

I definitely understand that I have to waterize, but I wasn't sure about how cold it would be along with the wet. Do you pretty much wear wellies 24/7?

"This is the wettest place you will ever live" is heaven to my ears! I wish I could be there yesterday.

[angelenogirl]

Originally Posted by Kevin98103

It's all relative, some people feel like they are Moses parting the sea (like above), other some people think it's a bit much to even carry an umbrella. I walked from Capitol Hill to my office downtown and for years just relied on an umbrella, a jacket and the awnings to keep from getting wet or freezing to death, but I usually tried to step over puddles and that helped. Since downpours and bitter cold are rare, it was rarely a problem.

So is the rain really cold? Or is it windy as well? Just trying to figure out the recipe for "freezing to death" while walking around outside.

[azoria]

You've heard the word hypothermia, yes?

~Cold water (less than 70° F) can lower your body temperature, causing hypothermia.~

(which is why people can die falling off a sailboat on the California coast. They don't drown from water in the lungs, they suffer from hypothermia.)

So it is not necessarily the air temperature in Seattle that is cold, it is the coldness caused by being wet and the lowering of body temperature--and the wetness being a seasonal constant.

Once wet here, you just don't dry out. Forget about cold, Seattle is not that cold. It is damp, humid, overcast, misty, raining, sunless, and wet. That's what makes you cold. Staying dry is the key to being less cold.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by angelenogirl

Thanks so much for the insight! I didn't mean to sound like a freak with the snowpants and mask stuff; I was just being slightly goofy.

I definitely understand that I have to waterize, but I wasn't sure about how cold it would be along with the wet. Do you pretty much wear wellies 24/7?

"This is the wettest place you will ever live" is heaven to my ears! I wish I could be there yesterday.

Neither I nor any of my kids ever wore wellies. We did more so in CA, where the rain would be hard and heavy. Again, here it's more like a mist and you can be out in it for a long time without getting too wet.
The kids wore jeans, sneakers, water-proof jacket with hood. Heavier winter coat when it got close to
or below freezing. You will see kids here wearing shorts in the rain, and even when it's in the 40s. It's
easy to spot tourists from warmer climates when you see heavy coats in spring/fall when it's in the 50s.