NO, it Does Not Rain All the Time in Seattle
Yeah, yeah, I hear the rain jokes and comments all the time —
How many Seattle-ites does it take to change a light bulb?
Two. One to change the bulb and one to hold the umbrella.
Ha! Ha!
After my return from Paris last week, a non-local friend asked if I was lamenting my return to the rainy weather of Seattle. While I was lamenting leaving Paris, the weather on the day I got back into Seattle was a very pleasant 82 degrees. Nothing to lament there!
Okay, it’s raining today (and was yesterday, too), but Seattle is NOT the rain-soaked city that you may think it is. Our average rainfall of 36 inches is much less than most places that you think of as being sunnier than here. Say, for instance, Miami (62 inches/year), Tallahassee (61 inches/year), and New Orleans (64 inches/year).
In fact, in a recent weather study by San Francisco’s WeatherBill, Inc., Seattle did not even break into the Top 10 rainiest cities in the United States! The first Washington city to make an appearance on this list of the rainiest cities in the contiguous 48 states was Olympia, at #24. Mobile, Alabama, topped the list with 67 inches/year.
So enough with the rain jokes, okay?! And remember — after the rain comes the rainbow!
Photo credit: SXC
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10 Comments
You just let out our secret.
OK, sssshhhhhhh!
We won’t let that get around.
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.
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I grew up in Oregon and lived in Humboldt for a good while. Then I moved to New Mexico. Seriously you’d think people might melt. Whenever it rains in NM there are car crashes and major melt downs of the human condition. It’s insane. I HATED it. I missed the rain all the time. I had dreams about it. Now I’ve moved back to the NW (Washington) and I’m so happy.
The sad part. My son went through his toddler years in NM so now he hates the rain
He says, “we can’t go outside… it’s raining” it’s driving me nuts. I even let him have an umbrella and I think real Oregonians don’t have them. I’m hoping he’ll adjust.
Hi Jennifer!
I love this corner of the world, too. And while it’s important to keep up the weather complaints so people don’t move here, I really like having changes of seasons.
Of course, I like the warm weather, too, but it’s easy enough to go visit it, rather than live in it.
It might not rain enough inches to qualify among the rainiest cities, but if they measured by days that it rains, Seattle would definitely be up there. My in-laws live in Seattle and in six years of visits in every month of the year, I’ve only been there one day when it did not rain one single drop. I know that seems extreme, but it’s true. While my in-laws rave about great weather, the moment I arrive it turns grey, rainy, and cool. I must be cursed. I really do want to love Seattle–I think it’s a cool city–but the weather just kills me.
Amazingly, the same study showed that the first Washington city to make an appearance in the list of most day of precipitation was NOT Seattle. It was our neighbor to the south, and state capitol, Olympia.
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I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and think it’s so silly that people (usually visitors rather than residents) complain about our rainy climate when it isn’t even all that wet!
As was mentioned, Northwest cities don’t even get top billing for annual rainfall. However, a while back I found one or two studies that put many Northwest cities high on the list for number of overcast in a year and that may be how we got the undue reputation about being soggy all the time.
As for me, I LOVE this mild, comfortable climate and hope I never have to move away.