Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by techsupporter 3647 days ago
I have (I live in Seattle, but don't work for Amazon) and the weather is pretty great roughly nine months out of the year. Late November to February are dreary but spring, summer, and most of fall make up for it. Sorry for leaking the secret, fellow Seattleites.
6 comments

Depends on how you define great weather. It doesn't rain nearly as much as people assume (lived there 6 years), but most days have some light drizzle. For a tennis player, that is emotionally taxing (is it going to rain? should we make plans).
I moved to Seattle and it's not the rain that bothers me (it's really not as bad as people say, even during the winter months), it's the cold. .. or rather lack of hot.

It never gets above 26C here. There are plenty of other cities like this (London just had a record heatwave .. of 29C; seriously that's too hot for them. People were passing out in the toobs. Wellington, another coastal city, has people bitching when it gets up to 27C as too hot), but the difference is they do get warm .. for an extended period of time. From May through August (opposite in Wellington cause hemispheres), you know you can put your jacket away. You don't need it. At worst it's gonna be a little refrigerator like if you stay out too late.

In Seattle, it could be mid-June and you might need that jacket...at noon, and then the next day you'll be burning up.

I miss seasons.

29°C is not a record heatwave for London, that's only 5°C higher than the average high for July.

"On average London will see 31 days above 25 °C each year, and 4.2 days above 30.0 °C every year."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London#Climate

While I miss the seasons a little bit (mainly thunderstorms and snow for a little bit), Seattle is WAY better than the midwest. I'll gladly take mild weather over hot humid summers and winters so cold all you see during the winter outside are bundles of clothing walking around.
"How many days of rain does Seattle get in a year? About 150." http://seattle.about.com/od/familylifestyles/tp/Rain-In-Seat...

(I've lived in Seattle over 10 years.)

I was in Seattle a number of years ago for a training session, in January. It rained off and on, but overall I thought the weather was beautiful. Except the one day that it snowed, but the rest of the week was in the 70's.

Edit: to the response below, this was back in 98 or 99, something like that. I've looked up the historical weather, and it must have been that it felt like 70's to me, coming from Chicago (so it was probably more like 50's). I just remember not needing a jacket for most of the time I was there, and it "feeling good" when the sun came out.

70's in Seattle in January is a lie, misremembering, or massive fluke. Not normal. January is high of 40's.

Source: 20 year Seattle resident who loves it anyway.

70 is a bit of an exaggeration, but 60 is not unusual. And if you're coming from most other places in the Northern US, it feels like 70 since you're coming from snow and ice.

http://weather-warehouse.com/WeatherHistory/PastWeatherData_...

16 year resident here, and I'm trying to think of a week where it snowed and hit 70 within a seven day period. I'm not saying GP is lying, not at all, but perhaps might have selectively remembered their time in Seattle in January. Perhaps the sun peeked out and it just seemed like it was 70 in contrast. :-)
You know that it's colder when you see the sun in January :P
Maybe they're thinking of Denver? Doesn't sound like the PNW I know. Although occasionally you do get some nice days in February. Not 70F nice, though.
I hesitate to pick on a post that was probably just a typo or remembering slightly wrong, but I was wondering so I looked it up: the record high for Seattle in January is 67F recorded in 1931. And the record low is zero...Fahrenheit. Yoiks, I'd have to consider moving again if it hit zero. :-)
We lived in Bellevue for about 18 months and the weather was beautiful. Almost everyone we met said the whole "it always rains" thing is just something they tell people so they'll stay away.
Was it 2014/2015? Those were particularly nice winters.

I lived in Bellevue for about 21 years, so I've got a bit more perspective.

It's not really that rainy, but it's grey 9 months out of the year for sure.

No, March '13 to Aug '14. But yes, many people called it a mild winter. While we had previously spent 5 years in Dallas, and 4 in Boston. My wife is originally from Idaho, and I from Michigan, anything less than multiple feet of snow, is "mild" :)
I moved from a pretty dry state to the Potomac valley, and noticed that if I happened to mention Seattle people would say, But it rains there all the time. The ground that we were standing on might be soft from recent storms, mushrooms might be sprouting around our feet, but Hey it rains in Seattle.
>I have (I live in Seattle, but don't work for Amazon) and the weather is pretty great roughly nine months out of the year.

I have to disagree: it depends on how you define "great". If you think Seattle in the winter is bad, try spending a winter in North Dakota or Minnesota. Or even the northeast, such as upstate NY.

I'll take dreary over -40 any day.

I think the secret is out[1].

[1] http://www.zillow.com/seattle-wa/home-values/

I lived in Seattle for almost 12 years, and I only found 2-3 months a year to be what I'd call "great" weather (or even good). My life and mood have improved dramatically since I moved to a place with more sun and fewer clouds. Obviously this is largely a matter of personal preference, but I couldn't disagree more that 9 months of the year in Seattle are great....