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I think what most people observe as "raining" is when the ground is wet and the sky is overbearingly gray, looking like it will rain. From indoors, it's quite h
by aneth4 14y ago
I think what most people observe as "raining" is when the ground is wet and the sky is overbearingly gray, looking like it will rain. From indoors, it's quite hard to determine if it is actually raining, and to most people there isn't much difference. The lack of sun and wet ground is more bothersome than precipitation.
If it rains 50% of days, that means the ground is almost always wet, and the sky is almost always dark and cloudy. To most people, that is rainy weather. Furthermore, the air is often misty and wet, but would not be measurable precipitation.
I'd love to see a similar analysis of sunshine. I did find on most days in the Seattle winter, the sun would peak through for a few hours, though usually too low in the sky to promote much Vitamin D production.
Seattle has amazing natural beauty, and sometimes the weather can be excellent even in the winter. Summers are flawless. However arguing that it doesn't "rain all the time" in the winter in Seattle might depend on whether your definition of raining is as meteorologist, or on whether you have to wear waterproof shoes and carry an umbrella.
- philwelch 14y agoMaybe it's because I'm a native of western Washington but I find a definite distinction between rain falling on my head and having a wet ground and cloudy skies.
- victoro 14y agoI lived in California for 10 years, then Seattle for 10 and now I'm back in Cali. You are totally spot on. The OP reads like a typical Seattleite rationalization of the crappy weather situation there. The biggest problem with the rain isn't getting wet; its the lack of sunlight, slippery driving conditions and constant threat of rain. Even the described 20% chance of rain in any given hour is surprisingly inconvenient. Riding a bike to work/school or jogging are things that I think are best if turned into habits -- done at specific times on specific days -- not on the spur of the moment after looking at a weather report. And executing a picnic or hike with any decently sized group of friends is barely possible on a moments notice. Seattlites need to call a spade a spade. If you like doing things outside (and judging by how full the city parks get on any remotely sunny day I think a lot of Seattlites do), the weather there is consistently inconvenient for about 10 months out of the year.
- larsberg 14y ago> If you like doing things outside, the weather there is consistently inconvenient for about 10 months out of the year. Within a few years, you learn to just do any outdoor activity in the rain unless it's June. And you get very friendly with gore-tex. This was something my family and I never did in Chicago, though that's mainly due to the intensity difference. In a "Seattle drizzle" you'll be fine; in a Chicago thunderstorm, not so much.
- zem 14y agoalso, i feel that to most people the unit of raininess is the day. even if you have a few sunny hours, but it is going to rain at some (often unpredictable) time during the day, you mentally classify that day as rainy.
- phil 14y agoWell that last one is pretty easy: nobody in Seattle carries an umbrella, for any reason, ever.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoI live in LA and refuse to own an umbrella on principle. Sounds like Seattle is the same but for the exact opposite reason.
- finnw 14y agoI guess that's how you spot the tourists. (I carried an umbrella the one time I visited Seattle, but never needed it.)
- arethuza 14y ago"when the ground is wet and the sky is overbearingly gray, looking like it will rain" We Scots have a useful term for this: dreich