Seattle weather similar to Paris and London? (Pacific: move, cities)

[beagledad]

I was reading that people equate the weather in Seattle to London and Paris. Since I haven't been to those cities I was wondering what others thought?

[homesinseattle]

I've had clients move here from both places. The ones from London seem to think the climate is more similar than the ones from Paris. We have better mountains and views, though

[cmswazey]

I think it's similar to England. I could be wrong but I think Paris gets more snow.

[pnwguy2]

Here are the average highs in January and July in all three cities. (Not all that different)...

London Jan. Hi 47, July Hi 74
Paris Jan. Hi 45, July Hi 77
Seattle Jan Hi 46, July Hi 76

Cloudiness is decidedly higher in Seattle and London. Paris, being more inland, has somewhat colder winter temps, but generally is slightly sunnier.

[Canamlian]

Short answer is that Seattle is probably the closest US city to those two, but there are key differences.

Average temperatures are very similar throughout the year - highs of mid 40s in the winter and mid 70s in the summer.

Seattle is significantly sunnier than both - about 500 more hours of sunshine a year on average. All three are pretty similar in late fall to early winter, with 50-70 hours of sun per month in Nov - Jan. However, Seattle starts to pull away in Feb and by the time summer rolls around, Seattle is way sunnier. It gets 100 more sunshine hours on average in July than either city. For comparison, London's sunniest month (July) averages the same amount of sunshine as April in Seattle. This is despite London being farther north than Seattle so more potential daylight hours at the peak of summer.

Despite the extra cloudiness, London and Paris get about 30% less rain volume than Seattle.

[pnwguy2]

I have always been amazed how Seattle gets throttled by its climate within the US, when two of the most famous European cities, (London and Paris) have similar climates. However, I guess it is relative. England doesn't have topical areas, and France does, but they are out of reach to most. Washington State is located at a somewhat high latitude, and that does effect the weather, but it also keeps the western portions mild most of the time due to Pacific influences. Folks from London and Paris would probably not be out of their element in Seattle.

[grega94]

Seattle is not only similar to London and Paris but also Brussels, Potenza Italy, Burgos Spain, and Christchurch New Zealand

[Canamlian]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

I have always been amazed how Seattle gets throttled by its climate within the US, when two of the most famous European cities, (London and Paris) have similar climates.

Seattle gets more annual sunshine than many major European cities on average:
- Milan (200 hours more)
- Berlin (500 hours more)
- Amsterdam (500 hours more)
- Zurich (600 hours more)
- Vienna (200 hours more)
- Venice (100 hours more)
- Budapest (150 hours more)

You have to get into Southern Europe to get consistently more annual sunshine than Seattle.

[James Bond 007]

I think another key difference is that, in the European cities mentioned, summer is very often cloudy and rainy, while Seattle during the summer tends to be sunny.

[xboxmas]

I'm guessing with Paris being more inland it would be more comparable to Portland, Oregon?