Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I've lived in Seattle for 5.5 years now, and I just accepted a job in San Diego. I'm telecommuting and traveling (as needed) from here until the end of June when I'll move the family down. Over the last 3 weeks, I've been traveling to SD, Burbank and Oakland, and I can tell you that the sunnier/warmer weather makes a HUGE difference. My wife and I decided after 5 years that we couldn't take the weather here any more because it's so depressing. It's the darkness, the cold, the gloom and the drizzle/rain. I'm an outdoors type of guy who likes to go hiking, biking, golfing, walking, etc, and I just can't do that here without wearing a frickin' slicker. Plus, my 2 young boys don't feel like playing outside ever because of the weather. The weather here was bad when my kids were babies, but it's getting way worse as they get older because they're stuck inside. I love so many things about Seattle and it's so beautiful when it's sunny, but there's just not enough sunny days to make it worth it for us.
Watch the Sun Angle in southern California as it can be very intense causing easy sunburns, particularly as soon as you get away from the moderating influences of the coast. I have northern European ancestry and the intensity of the sun angle really starts bothering me south of 40N. I think The Bay Area offers a nice balance of climate, latitude, and a moderate sun angle.
Not to mention, OP, that the rain/overcast tends to grow moss in the lawn and on the roof, and can cause extra home maintenance issues, compared to some other parts of the country. If you were going to buy a home eventually.
Yeah I've noticed that, but it is minor to me compared to the SAD. I've rehabbed 4 houses so any type of home maintenance for me is kind of null. I can fix/work on houses but I can't fix the weather. Unfortunately even the houses that need tons of rehab here are expensive to buy. That's more an issue, but even that is secondary to the SAD.
We were going to leave town tomorrow but due to snow in Montana we aren't leaving until Monday. I'm hoping getting away from here might clear my head a bit. There are things I don't care for about Denver and I think if I thought Sacramento was so great I wouldn't have moved away in the first place, though I was at a different point in my life when I lived there back then. Minneapolis seems OK but it would be similar weather to what I was trying to get away from in other parts of the Midwest.
I am not usually a negative person, I think the SAD is influencing me. My Mom told me again today she thinks I should move away from here, the weather isn't for me but I don't have to be in a hurry as summer is coming, and I'm going away for a while. That's why I'm hoping I can clear my head... with some sun.
I started taking 5-HTP last night primarily to help me sleep but also it supposedly works on depression and appetite control... I am doing what I said I didn't want to do, taking an anti-depressant to live somewhere, but at least it's a natural product; I have to do what's best for me at present moment instead of living in a sub-par manner.
Don't know if you can get a job there, but I think Redding california, or Medford Oregon is the answer. Both have access to wonderful forest recreation. Both have TONS of sunshine. Redding has a hot summer, but unlike Phoenix, it only last 3 months. Wonderful combo of Pine and Palm trees. (I live in Phoenix and the 8 months of heat gives me the moving ich. Both Medford and Redding are close enough to the ocean. Another awesome city is Sacramento...known as the "City of trees". There is more canopy of tree there than Seattle if you can believe it. Thought about Boise ID? Awesome weather..not too much snow, very LOW cost of living, one of the top outdoor recreational spots in the USA. Boise, ironically also known as the city of trees...but not nearly as treed as Sac town. Both boise and Sac Town have nice rivers that offer huge bikeing, walking, running scenery. I lived in Portland, Seattle, Eugene, Austin, Phoenix, Loveland Co and Boise. Boise was the perfect place..but I screwed up and took a job for more money here in this hot hell (which Ive lived before). In Boise...if you want to get some Washington or Oregon, just get in the car and get your Rain forest, or Coast fix. My wife wants to go back to the Grey of Seattle, I think after a few years of wasting away in this intense heat...which the OP knows all about, she just wants to hide from the sunshine. For me its middle ground: Sac town or back to Boise. Just looked it up, there are 206 sunny days in Boise, 90 over casts...I guess the balance is partly sunny or partly clowdy. When I was there, it would snow, but it would melt the same day most of the time.
The PNW has more cloudy days than most of the USA.... Only place as dark is my neck of the woods in the Lake Superior snow belt..... Check out Marquette MI... Bout as dark as Seattle but colder.. //www.city-data.com/city/Marquette-Michigan.html
--------------
On latitude, I am at 46N, we get about 15 or 20 min more light at winter solstice than Puget sound.. Each degree of latitude is about 10 min of day length at solstice.
Yes Puget sound is a dark place and the lack of snow cover makes it even darker... Snow reflects light, heck a moonlight night with snow cover you can see just fine...
Many European cities are just as or even more dark and gray than Seattle....
Don't forget the opposite effect in summer... Northern latitudes have days much longer than more southerly latitudes...
Lots of people from the Upper Midwest move the Northwest, particularly Seattle region. MPLS gets a good deal more sunlight and daylight than Seattle in the Winter and it is a much lower latitude, relatively speaking, if you don't mind the colder weather. I've looked at position openings in the Seattle area in the past, but I don't do very well with several weeks of dark cloudy weather so I knew it wasn't going to be a good fit...
I much prefer snowy and cold conditions with a variety of clear and cloudy days so I'll stay in the Upper Midwest for now.
I suppose each has their own perspective......Minneapolis 44.9 N north compared to Seattle's 47.6N is 2.7 degrees... So Minneapolis gets about 30 min more light on December 21st than Seattle, and less by the same amount on June 21st...
Yes, clear days Minneapolis has more but personally, I see it as a trade off, green living things instead of 8 months of frozen "suspended animation".... I am in the lake Superior snow belt at 46. something N. So a little darker than Minneapolis, in both cloud cover and winter day length, more like Seattle. Except!....
... Ice fishing is still in full swing in the Northwoods... It is still deep winter, 10F the other night, winter snow pack still intact, have not seen open water or bare ground since October....
I personally do not care for upper midwest climate outside of the Northwoods....
Minneapolis or Madison prairie climates are like a roller coaster, you fly through the Seattle "comfort zone" temps of 40-60 on your way to hot steamy mosquito infested summer temps or subzero winter temps..
Then again in the upper midwest we pray for winter to come back, because the mosquitos, deer flies, horse flies, no seeums and black flies are draining so much blood it drives one crazy......... .LOL
So when all is all said and done, Seattle gets 3 months of "perfect" weather (July, August and September) Upper midwest only gets one month... (September)
I work outside and play outside, so 45F and mizzle is more comfortable than -30F where everything you touch breaks and breathing too hard while skiing frost bites your lungs, or you are being consumed alive by insects during the brief summer..
Personally, this SAD... Is only an issue for people who spend time indoors.... If you get outside and stay outside one gets plenty of light even if that light is gloomy. Yes in gloomy weather one should spend more hours outside..... Darn tough for urban office working folks to do in the short winter days.... Not so tough for a farmer/logger though..
So SAD suffering folks get off the computer and get outside right now! 2 plus hours a day, being active outside will cure it, even if it is cloudy...
I'm not going outside if it's below 50F. I've tried, it doesn't help, I'm cold. My hands, feet, and other areas are cold. I hate it. Its miserable and does nothing to help my depression.
But I am atypical with SAD as 70 and overcast makes me happier than 30 and sunny. Now 70F and sunny and I'm in heaven.
Take today, beautiful sunshine but 35F and a wind that blows right through you. No way, not happening. Only time I'm going outside today is to run from the car to the gym and the car to the grocery store.
I work outside and play outside, so 45F and mizzle is more comfortable than -30F where everything you touch breaks and breathing too hard while skiing frost bites your lungs, or you are being consumed alive by insects during the brief summer..
Personally, this SAD... Is only an issue for people who spend time indoors.... If you get outside and stay outside one gets plenty of light even if that light is gloomy. Yes in gloomy weather one should spend more hours outside..... Darn tough for urban office working folks to do in the short winter days.... Not so tough for a farmer/logger though..
So SAD suffering folks get off the computer and get outside right now! 2 plus hours a day, being active outside will cure it, even if it is cloudy...
SAD it's a matter of what's comfortable. Of course even I think the weather here is comfortable. Would be fantastic if I didn't get affected by the lack of sun. I ran a race yesterday here in Seattle and it was overcast and 49, that is perfect temperature for running. I moved here in large part so I could play outdoor sports year round. I've lived everywhere from the extreme heat of Phoenix to the cold/snow of being downside of lake Michigan, hot/humid lower Midwest summer weather, etc and have always managed to still play sports and be outside. So as far as SAD being an issue for those that only spend time indoors... uh, I don't think so. I'm a triathlete and marathoner, I snowshoe, cross country ski, snowboard, bike, hike, kayak, run on all sorts of trails and roads (with my dog, he last ran a marathon with me in November). My norm is 2+ hours of being active a day.
The lack of light and short days mean less light at the right intensity is not actually hitting the retina - to tell the pineal gland that hey it's daytime, stop producing melatonin... and it lowers seratonin and other hormones in your body to reset your body bio-mechanically in this way. They don't know all the mechanics of it, but have clued in on some things. So even when you are outside if there's not enough light your body thinks it is night - all the time. Before I used the bright lights I would get to the afternoon and feel like I had just stayed up all night. So then you are just tired all the time, and no longer even mentally want to do anything. When I have the SAD even when I push myself to go do my normal activities, also physically I feel weaker and less able to do them. I'm very in tune with my body so can feel all this going on and basically it sucks.
Foreverking, thanks for the suggestions - I will check those places out! I used to live in Sacramento, I moved away, I'd rather not move back but am considering it. I need to get out of this grey for a while. I can't make decisions and feel too foggy. I've got some career decisions to make and I think the grey is affecting my head in that way too, can't stand it. I am not suicidal or anything like that, right now it's at a level I just can tell I don't feel my normal, energizer bunny positive self, and my normal decent decision making skills have slowed as well. AAARRGGGHHH!!!
I suppose each has their own perspective......Minneapolis 44.9 N north compared to Seattle's 47.6N is 2.7 degrees... So Minneapolis gets about 30 min more light on December 21st than Seattle, and less by the same amount on June 21st...
Yes, clear days Minneapolis has more but personally, I see it as a trade off, green living things instead of 8 months of frozen "suspended animation".... I am in the lake Superior snow belt at 46. something N. So a little darker than Minneapolis, in both cloud cover and winter day length, more like Seattle. Except!....
... Ice fishing is still in full swing in the Northwoods... It is still deep winter, 10F the other night, winter snow pack still intact, have not seen open water or bare ground since October....
I personally do not care for upper midwest climate outside of the Northwoods....
Minneapolis or Madison prairie climates are like a roller coaster, you fly through the Seattle "comfort zone" temps of 40-60 on your way to hot steamy mosquito infested summer temps or subzero winter temps..
Then again in the upper midwest we pray for winter to come back, because the mosquitos, deer flies, horse flies, no seeums and black flies are draining so much blood it drives one crazy......... .LOL
So when all is all said and done, Seattle gets 3 months of "perfect" weather (July, August and September) Upper midwest only gets one month... (September)
I work outside and play outside, so 45F and mizzle is more comfortable than -30F where everything you touch breaks and breathing too hard while skiing frost bites your lungs, or you are being consumed alive by insects during the brief summer..
Personally, this SAD... Is only an issue for people who spend time indoors.... If you get outside and stay outside one gets plenty of light even if that light is gloomy. Yes in gloomy weather one should spend more hours outside..... Darn tough for urban office working folks to do in the short winter days.... Not so tough for a farmer/logger though..
So SAD suffering folks get off the computer and get outside right now! 2 plus hours a day, being active outside will cure it, even if it is cloudy...
Have you always lived in the WI Northwoods or the Northwest as well? I'm quite familiar with the WI Northwoods and would be up there all the time if it wasn't for my job in Madison. 46N latitude, eh? That would be up around the Vilas, Iron, Ashland, Bayfield county region eh? I've done extensive hiking and most trails in Vilas County and it reminds me quite a bit of northern Maine and New Hampshire. Boulder Junction and Plum Lake township have nice trails. I did Star Lake trail last November, about 5-6 inches of snowcover then.
Yes, Madison is in a bizarre transition zone between the prairies & cornbelt to the south/southwest and the mixed wooded/dairy farm region to the north and northwest. It's also annoying that no coniferous trees growing naturally in Madison but do 30-45 minutes north.
"Yes, clear days Minneapolis has more but personally, I see it as a trade off, green living things instead of 8 months of frozen "suspended animation".... I am in the lake Superior snow belt at 46. something N. So a little darker than Minneapolis, in both cloud cover and winter day length, more like Seattle. Except!....
... Ice fishing is still in full swing in the Northwoods... It is still deep winter, 10F the other night, winter snow pack still intact, have not seen open water or bare ground since October.... "
The low temperature yesterday morning in Manitowish Waters was -2F and Ely, MN was -8F. I studied meteorology and climatology extensively at the university level so the Northwoods climate always fascinated me. This Spring season has definitely been the polar opposite compared to last year!
I do prefer to live in the northern 1/4 of the US if given the choice and won't move south unless a really good job opportunity comes up (I'm originally from Kansas City, MO region). Needless to say I HATED the climate of that area as it featured way too much heat and humidity and next to no lakes.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
