Rain In Seattle - An Illusion

Rain In Seattle – Not Well Understood 

Everybody seems to talk about the great amount of rain in Seattle – including the people who live here. In fact rain is so much a part of the Seattle scene that locals rarely use umbrellas - on the other hand visitors/tourists are easy to spot with their umbrellas - so we did a little research.

Now let’s look at actual number of days of rain compared to the total number of inches of rain – it rains more days  in Seattle, but about the same inches:

City                                Days of Rain                    Inches

Columbus                       138                                    38.5

Seattle                           154                                    37.1

Detroit                           134                                    32.9

Miami, FL                       131                                    38.5

Then again Seattle does have a couple of fewer sunny days and 14 to 17 less completely clear days.

                        Avg. Annual Sunshine

City                              %Sunny Days      Total Hours of Sun      Clear Days

Columbus                        50                                    2183                    72

Seattle                            47                                    2170                    58

Detroit                            53                                    2436                    75

Miami, FL                        70                                    3154                    74

But then when it comes to cloudy days!

City                                 Cloudy Days*               Fog**

Columbus                        190                              166

Seattle                            226                              165

Detroit                            185                              156

Miami, FL                        115                                43

* The figure for cloud counts the days when cloud covers at least 80 percent of the sky during daylight hours. ** The totals listed for foggy days includes days with mist.

However, Seattle does have you all beat when it comes to less snow and frigid weather (but you don’t have to go far to get really tremendous amounts of snow.

City                                Days of Snow                      Inches

Columbus                        29.5                                    28.8

Seattle                              5.7                                      8.1

Detroit                            38.3                                    44.0

http://www.currentresults.com/Weather/US/annual-snowfall-by-city.php (ref for all the data)

How could Seattle have developed such a reputation for having so much rain! ? – it does not square with the data. It rains more frequently in Seattle, but with less volume per day – drizzle – and a little bit more often. Our experience is that it is frequently cloudy but the sun does peep through the clouds every so often during a cloudy day. They say in the winter it can stay pretty cloudy. However, Columbus gets its fair share of cloudy weather.

Our conclusion is: no great weather extremes – not too hot and not too cold, sufficient rain, not baked by the sun leads to a very green Seattle metro area year around – that is the secret.  We also note that the greenery in people’s yards and public places is extremely well manicured compared to any other place we have been.

A few comments on the temperature: This is June and we are still using a blanket at night. Some days it gets into the low 70s – but, today (24 Jun 11) it was a high of 63 and an expected low of 50 later tonight. We understand it gets a tad warmer into the 80s in July and can hit into the low 90s in August – but the winters are also mild. We will keep you posted on our new adventures.