What is with the "rain" excuse? (Seattle, Everett: to buy, living in)

[green_mariner]

I used to live in the Seattle area(Everett specifically) and it didn't rain that much. Yes there was overcast, I saw many sunny days. This is my experience. I live in the metro Atlanta area and Atlanta gets more rain than Seattle. I believe that the "rain" excuse is just a convenient excuse to discourage newcomers from relocating to Seattle. I love living there and I personally would like to live in the Pacific Northwest again. What are your views on the "rain" excuse?

[gallo]

It's not so much the rain as it is the cloudy/gray weather. As you know, Seattle gets more of a constant drizzle (sometimes for weeks on end) than a true rain that you would experience in others places. As such, Seattle gets less rain in total inches per year than a lot of eastern cities (i.e., Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Miami and New York).

What Seattle does have is that it is consistently one of the top two or three cloudiest/grayest cities in America. By far, we receive less sunlight per year than any other large metro area in the U.S.

So again, it's not necessarily the total amount of rain, but rather the number of days with rain and overcast from which Seattle deservedly earns its reputation.

Sunshine is abundant in the summer, however, and is one of our best kept a secrets.

[scirocco22]

yup, not really an excuse. I lived through it for decades. Again, I was born and raised in the area and the main reason I moved was because of the gray and damp number of days, and the "cold" rain. Like I've said numerous times before, Seattle gets cold rain. It's one thing to be raining at 60 or 70 degrees but raining when it's 35-45 degrees is quite another thing ...for me anyway. It was downright miserable.

[green_mariner]

It rains like that in Atlanta. It depends on one's taste. For me, cold rain isn't so bad so long as it isn't a hard soaking-through-the-jacket rain. I know it can rain for many days in Seattle. I am just wondering about the "rain" line. It doesn't discourage me. Actually, I get nostalgic when it dark and rainy in winter.

[Ultrarunner]

I tell my friends that I'm saving a fortune not having to buy sunblock!

[gallo]

Sorry evergreen,

I think I might have misinterpreted what you're saying. I actually agree with you that it is common for locals to tell out of towners that "it rains 12 months a year in Seattle" or "it rains everyday in Seattle" to discourage them for moving here (there seems to be a lot of people here that feel are is becoming too crowded).

Still, even though that is not the truth, Seattle gets more than it's share of cloudy days and days with precipitation. In fact, as I said in my earlier post, it gets much more than any other metro in the U.S.

[scirocco22]

hmmm, I didn't necessarily use it as an excuse (although I didn't want more people moving there) but it was actually the way I feel sometimes. Perhaps a bit convoluted but again, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so to speak, as it prompted me to move after many decades of living there.

[lcoasterchix]

someone i work with when i talked about concern for rain she said, it doesn't rain that much.. it's just what we people from seattle like to say to keep new people from coming. thought that was cute.

[pwright1]

The weather was a big factor in me moving here from the east coast. I was really sick of the oppressive heat and humidity in the summers and the cold and snow of the winters. To me this is 'the good life'.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by lcoasterchix

someone i work with when i talked about concern for rain she said, it doesn't rain that much.. it's just what we people from seattle like to say to keep new people from coming. thought that was cute.

This person(me) isn't going to let rain stop him from living in Seattle, especially when considering the upside of a marine climate is nice summer weather, which is hard to find in Georgia.