Seattle is pretty well known for its gray, drizzly, depressing weather. What may be surprising is that we don’t get all that much rain comparatively with the rest of the nation. Seattle has and average rainfall of about 36″ annually, while the average for the United States is about 37″. What we do have a lot of though is cloudy days. Out of 365 days a year we Seattleites only enjoy 152 days of sunny to partly-sunny weather compared to the 205 day national average (1). And of those 152 days, only 58 of them are full on sunshine bliss, making us the 7th least sunniest place in the United States (2). Sigh.
So, when the sun came out a-blazen yesterday and warmed up to a whopping 65 degrees I thought maybe we had been transported to Southern California. I mean, this is January still, right?
We took advantage of the day and cleaned up our potted garden, gathered up the last autumns leaves and tidied up the potting station. As I worked I was surprised to find many of our plants are budding/ growing. The blueberries are budding, the raspberries are shooting up new canes, chamomile volunteers are sprouting, truly, is this not May? My only fear now is a hard frost that will knock back all those plants that have dared to think winter is over.
But for now, I’m enjoying this gorgeous weather!
1) Best Place, Climate in Seattle, WA. http://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/washington/seattle
2) KOMO News, How Many Sunny Days Do We Get Each Year? http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4103321.html
Washington is truly one of my most favorite places on earth. I have my little plot of land picked out to move to after our time in Phoenix is done. It will be a nice change to have a little less sun. 😉
I love the forests, rivers and mountains. But I get tired of all the gray – not to mention the traffic. I hate traffic. We are looking to move a little south into Oregon. But in the summer, I can’t think of a better place to be than the Puget Sound!