[3.5] The Sunshine State

[Update on Lisa's first post: No progress (poking it to see if it is still alive). Back to the living blog]

It was overcast this morning. I mention this because it is quite the rarity thus far. I figure that we've been here in Seattle for almost two months, so that is a sufficient amount of time to undertake a preliminary update of the local weather situation, as always, for your information.

Every time I speak to Dad on the phone his first question is "How's the weather?". We'll get to my standard answer shortly, but first, I mention this because it's an intriguing phenomenon. I don't think there are many places in the US where everyone is hung up on what the weather is doing on a regular basis and the weather defines the area. Sure you get the hurricanes in the Southeast and the random blizzard that dumps feet of snow up North; these surely elicit curiousity from many people. But outside of Seattle, I'm not sure people are that consumed by what the weather is like, outside of maybe Phoenix in the summer, just because temperatures there more resemble those of a slow cooker as opposed to a major city (word from Dave and Linda and Scott is that 115F - 120F were pretty common this year). Darnit if people aren't just curious what happens when the temperature is 30 degrees more than your body temp.

Anyway, I bring this up because my typical response to my father is "75 and sunny". Now I harbor no illusions that I'll be spitting out this pat response come November, but the fact is, summer is absolutely amazing here in Seattle, especially for someone coming from the sauna that is the east coast summer. In two months, it's been clear sunny skies for about 85% - 90% of the time. We've had one day where it rained for a sustained period of time (that day cleared up and was sunny in the late afternoon) and about three or four days where it's been cloudy most of the day. Sometimes we'll get an overcast morning like today, but it will end like this (see right). And the locals are all complaining about how crappy the weather has been this August/September so I'm really curious how much better it can get.

Now again, we're just preparing ourselves for the Seattle "winter". Six months of gray, misty days that last from November through March. But hey, if that's the price for the amazing summer weather that we've been experiencing, sign me up. One of the local radio stations back in NYC used to label the "10 best days of the year". Days with low humidity, manageable temps, and glorious sunshine were so designated. We've had conservatively 25 of those since the begining of August. Now I know this is not LA and in a few weeks, I'll have constant drizzle to slap my face and remind me, but I'll relish it for now.

Finally, check out the average annual rainfall in Seattle versus other cities. Seems we have much lighter, albeit much more frequent, rain here. Check back for my next two month weather update in November. And then deeper into the winter, we hope to be enjoying lows of 35 - 40 degrees while those of you back in the NE are wading through feet of snow in sub-zero temps.