Seattle weather...what Is It Like, Really?!?!

I have not lived there, but have visited numerous times and in the winter it's always pretty gloomy. The summers, on the flip side, seem quite spectacular.

I did grow up in an area that is cloudy about 300 days out of the year and I think it is a major adjustment for people who are used to living in a sunny area. It was a major adjustment for me to move to a place that is not so cloudy. Ironic, huh?

My brother once went to visit Seattle for about 10 days in February. It was densely cloudy every single day. On the final day, as he was getting ready to leave for his flight, the sun came out and the clouds lifted. He was completely shocked to see this enormous mountain looming over the city - Mount Rainier! It had been blocked by the clouds for his entire visit! :)

State of Washington ranks number 1 for rain downfall with Louisana coming in 2nd. Been there...didn't like it...i am a sunshine person.

I am looking out my window and it is gray and raining. It was raining and blustery windy last night. We probably wont be done with this weather until about May. That's not to say there wont be some beautiful days thrown in the mix!! There will be. But, it really does rain a LOT here.
There are some pretty great things about this area. TONS of areas to hike. Beautiful outdoors. It's a pretty liberal state. The oceans are beautiful, but don't even try to swim in them...it's COLD...all year round. The lakes are nice, and people swim in those. We are a bit more "granola"...probably right up there with Portland (Ha!). The housing prices are high. Very high. So, you will probably not want to live in the city. If you live outside the city your commute can be a bear.
I wont move though...even with all the rain. It's so so so green here! Those gorgeous days really help make up for some of the gloom. You wont see a lot of people out here with umbrellas! Unless the sky is FALLING we put up with misty rain all the time. Summer here can be pretty great. The past year or two it has been pretty short though.
We are not like Indonesia. If it rains it will rain all day and night. :)
L.
ADDED - i don't know where Beth went but there is NOT a liquor store on every corner in my area. In fact, there is one. In seattle there is probably more, but it's a big city! PLUS, there is a lot of coffee stands. But, so? You don't have to go if you don't want to. People here aren't ruder than anywhere else in the states. We are just colder! We hunker down when we walk to block out the cold and wet.

My husband lived there about 2 yeas and said the same thing. Absolutely beautiful, but drizzles all the time, grey skies a lot of the year. Some times it's just mist that barely gets you wet. But, there are surrounding cities that are not as rainy and drizzly.

As a fellow Texan, I'd be wiling to trade that in, I can't stand hot, humid, muggy dry, Texas weather anymore! We all have our different tastes :)

I have lived in in Washington north of Seattle by about 30miles my whole life. Yes, we have rain, yes, it's more than other places in the states but it's not everyday or all day. Yes, it's grey a lot but there are other things that make it so okay to have all that. I personally think this last year was our worse in the past twenty years that I can think of. We only had maybe 40 days of sun. But that is a rare rare occurrence. What you can do is look up our weather patterns for the past ten years and if it rained how much. Plus if you get sick of the rain you can usually go to Eastern Washington and it's either sunny there or at least a dry cold. You have the best of the all worlds here.
The wildlife is like no other, the weather is like no other(in a positive way) we have all seasons, we have the best colors around, you can go drive up in the North Cascades and feel like you stepped into a photo shoot for a outdoor magazine. Also if you a foodie you can jump down to Portland for some good eats. Not that Seattle doesn't have any but they are up and coming for a lot of wonderful things down there.
Plus you have any type of sport you would might want to do from rowing, biking, soccer, paragliding, wind surfing, sailing, skiing/snowboarding, kayaking, scuba, and so many others.
Everything is just a jump away. Oh and traffic does stink but what larger city has no traffic!

I have lived in both places...Seattle and the Dallas, TX area

I would take Seattle over Texas in a heart beat.

But, you have to learn to live with grey and rainy weather. It's not necessarily cold, just wet. Shop at Eddie Bauer for your winter gear.

I did more gardening in Seattle than anywhere else, with the exception of SoCAL. I also love the open water and fresh seafood options and fantastic coffee shops and amazing gardening centers and phenomenal wineries, and there are prestigious universities, so lots of educated people....and the gorgeous mountains in both winter and summer. It's truly magnificent.

GL!

It is grey...and it does rain frequently but not a lot of rain just enough to keep the ground wet. The Summers are awesome! sunny almost all summer long. The temperature is awesome high of upper 70's in the summer and low of mid 30's in the winter...so nice! Yes it does get colder and warmer ocassionally but not much. Snow storm hits and you are sorry out of luck for a few days as they cannot handle the snow and ice very well.

Now I come from the midwest....we lived in seattle for five years and LOVED it I never ever, ever complained about the weather cause for me the temperature was awesome. Now I am back in the midwest and the weather just sucks. But that is me.

What I would be worried about is the cost of living. You have to make big money to live confortably there! At an average cost of a home being around a half a million and the cost of living and commute time is a terror if you don't car pool!

We are happy we lived there for a few years and did a LOT of traveling and sight seeing! But we are also happy to not be paying the price anymore!

Even if you HATE Twilight... go rent it. It's one of the VERY FEW movies/media that gets our weather right. Drizzly, damp, sloppy. During the few days the sun comes out from Oct-May EVERYONE pours outside.

White skies. Even during the 2 months we have KIND OF sunny weather, you won't see blue skies more than a few days a year. They're PALE blue. Pastel. During the other 10 months? They're WHITE to grey. From horizon to horizon (although DO realize, Seattle is in a forest... the furthest you can look in MOST directions is about 500 feet because of the hills and trees).

It RARELY rains here. We have SEVERAL names for the 'not quite rain' that happens (drizzling, misting, etc.). ALMOST NO ONE OWNS UMBRELLAS. Why? Because the 'rain' is usually too light to fall straight down. It blows around. So umbrellas are pointless. You're going to get wet. Not soaked, just uncomfortably damp. You know the 'grunge' look? It's NOT a fashion statement. Our hair is clean, it's just damp. We wear layers to fight off the fact that the top layer is going to be clammy. Water soaks up from the bottom of our pants. There are few sidewalks WITHOUT giant holes and cracks (when sidewalks exist at all... the only 'real' sidewalks are on the east side).

WE DON'T HAVE NEIGHBORHOODS!!! Nearly all the housing is on 30mph-45mph streets. And cars use them. A "not busy" street is 25mph with cars about 1 per 5 minutes. You can't let your kids ride bikes out on the streets. There are almost NO culdesacs or dead end streets.

NO ONE PLAYS OUTSIDE WHEN IT'S RAINING.

LOL... people moving here often think we spend $500 per year on gortex for our kids and send them to the park. NOPE! Our parks are empty about 10 months a year. So get used to spending a LOT of time inside with your kids. There are a lot of indoor play places for toddlers, but after that age it's pay-to-play indoor sports and classes, or arranged playdates inside someone's home. ((Also, most places in the country ADULTS spend a lot of time outside... you get to know your neighbors and your kids play outside with other kids on the street. THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN HERE. You dash from warm dry house, to cold dry car, to warm dry PLACE. PLAYDATES RULE. People aren't "unfriendly"... it's just that we rarely MEET people / have time to chat))

Our "2 months" of good weather? Well, it's not solid. The way our seasons work is like this:

Oct-May 50 degrees & 'raining' MOST days
Aug & Sept are our "summer" (70's usually)
June is iffy. Always.
ANY DAY in June-Sept CAN BE 50 degrees and raining. (Usually at least once or twice a week TWO WEEKS OF SUN MAKES THE NEWS! Any time it gets into the 80's it makes the news. People start dying in the 90's -no air conditioning.)
July 4th is our "memorial day" when people can count on moderately decent weather at least half the time, and when most people break out their grills.

Sinus infections. We've all got em. ((We have more mold here than anywhere else in the world, including the 3 largest rainforests COMBINED. We also have the highest incidence of MS. Lots of research is going into WHY. Mold is pretty high on the list of possible reasons. You see billboards with "Is it in the air?" Help fund MS research, and "Is it in the water?" Help fund MS research. "Is it in the mud?" Help fund MS research. It's HUMID almost all the time (80-90+% humidity) it's just COLD and humid. Anyone with arthritis or bad joints just suffers.))

Summer nights are nice (unless you have young children to get to bed). It doesn't get dark until 10pm (and the sun is up at 4am)

Winter... it's dark by 4pm (and doesn't get light until 730 am... meaning for those who work, they often leave for home in the dark, and come home in the dark. SCHOOLS RUN FROM 8AM-4PM... so ditto for your kids)

Your friends aren't exaggerating. GREY & DRIZZLY. Almost all year long. Is a bit of an understatement.

Oh. And that seafood? YES we live where salmon is caught and Dungeness is just a few hours drive away, as are oysters, clams, etc. And we SUBSIDIZE the rest of the country. Salmon is often $20 PER pound. And lunch meat? (we're talking turkey and ham and stuff) is $12 PER pound. Milk is $4 per HALF gallon. It's VERY VERY expensive to eat up here. For a family of 3 the poverty line is at 44k per year. 100k per year is LOWER middle class. (To get a 2 bedroom house for under half a million, you have to head out 30-60 minutes outside of the city. There is NO public transportation to speak of. STUDENT housing (college) is $1600 per month.

I lived in Issaquah WA which is about 30 minutes East of Seattle, and loved it. It is cloudy almost every day along with drizzle. I lived there a year got use to the weather. It is the most beautiful place I've ever lived (I cried when we had to move due to do job transfer). I wish you the best in your decision.

My sister has lived in Seattle for the last 22 years. I have visited her there, but almost always in the summer and it's hardly rained when I've been there! But, like I said, it was summer. She has never minded the gloomy weather. I don't think I could take it day in and day out. It's a shame because it's such a great city. I love visiting there!

Sounds great to me! We (hubby, dd and I) love rainy days and snow and actually dislike the sun! LOL

We have talked lots of times of moving that way (we snowmobile in the mountains...hubby and I)...but finances always keep us here. We were hoping daughter would go to Art school that way. She has been seriously considering an Art college in Vancouver..but I can't get past all the hassel of being an international student and they have no dorms and she would need that to suit her personality (not over adventerous/never been away from home, etc).

I could never, ever handle the lack of sunshine in Seattle . . . had an aunt and uncle who lived there for a bit.

Some people love it though - my aunt and uncle did!

My in-laws live there and you're absolutely right, in the summer (like may-september) it's the most BEAUTIFUL AMAZING place.. then during the winter (the other months lol) it's pretty gray and rainy.. But I'd move there in a heart beat and I'm from Texas so I get what you're saying about the sunny days. I can tell you that if you have even the slightest appreciation for culture and food (which it sounds like you do) you'd LOVE it there. The weather during the winter accounts for them having the highest suicide rate but I think I could manage the rainy days just to live in the atmosphere. It's seriously the most amazing place I've ever been and we're actually thinking of moving up there when my husband gets out of the Coast Guard.. Make a pros and cons list and see how much the rainy months weigh against all the other amazing things.. Good luck!

lived near Seattle for 6 months HATED it. it rained all the time but it wasn't really RAIN it was this spitting mist stuff, and SNOWED as in blizzard , roads closed Before thanks giving. It's miserable , there's a drive through coffee stand on every block and a drive through liquor store on every corner. The people are rude, and in way too much of a hurry.

It rains A LOT! But there is a lot to do, a lot to see and it is very beautiful. I lived just N of Seattle for a couple years and my sister has been in Seattle (Bellevue area) for 5 years. The constant drizzle and grey skies did depress me (but I was not living there during the summers), but my sister does fine with it. She loves it over there and can't figure out why on earth I would live in Eastern WA with all the snow :)

**The city averages 226 cloudy days a year, with the majority of those falling between October and May.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Seattle 101: How much does it really rain in Seattle? - Seattle newcomer | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/newcomer-in-seattle/seattle-101-h...

A very good friend of mine lived in Seattle and now lives about two hours above Seattle. Your husband's associates are correct in their assessment. You can almost count on a little bit of drizzle or mist daily. Now, I could handle a place like Hawaii or Indo because it rains, but it's a warm rain and then it clears and the beautiful sunshine is out again and all is well. I'm a sunshine lover so I could never live in Seattle, although it's a really hip and fun place to visit. And green! :)

Debbie Macomber writes FICTION lol and froo froo fiction at that LOL (she's too tame for my tastes LOL).

My hubby is in the Coast Guard and every time it's time to move we look at what's open and have to make a list. In the research I've done over the years ... New York actually gets more inches of rain than Seattle does, HOWEVER Seattle has an obscene amount of overcast days per year. Last I looked it was close to 300 overcast days per year. How dense or what they consider overcast I'm not sure. But that's what I read last (a couple of years ago). Washington State also has the ONLY rain forest in a TEMPERATE zone. Which should give you a clue about the moisture level in the area LOL.

Personally I couldn't live there. I have seasonal affective disorder and would be dead within 2 years if I lived there. I also have arthritis and the damp would make walking nearly impossible.

But as another poster suggested the best thing to do would be make a pro's and con's list of the places you're considering living. the top of the list should be things like food, cost of housing, and utilities compared to pay, next look at the social aspects of the place. If they balance out then go for it. You can always move if you don't like it :) If they don't then stay put for now. You can always move later if you change your mind :)

Good luck with your decision.

I love that area! I would live in Washington in a split second! Im a born Texan and I hate this weather! I almost dread april because that means irs gonna be a million degrees until november :(. I love rain and gloom and I would jump on that!