weather report

Meteorologists choose Seattle not for its bonny climate, but rather for the variety and interest the weather brings.  That said, they also can forget that the meteorologically naive really just want to be given some hope in our weather reports and not, for instance,:

“Seattle averages three sunny days and six partly sunny days in a typical February.  We are only a little more than halfway through this February, and we’ve already had two sunny days and seven partly sunny days”

Let me translate:  “forget about anymore sun for the next two weeks.”

Or a post from last July 18th where a certain rain loving forecaster was cheerfully measuring summer thus far…in minutes.

“The mission: Find out how many minutes it’s been at 80 degrees or warmer this year– what I would call a true warm summer day in  Seattle.  The answer: 78 minutes. Or, breaking it down: 12 minutes on July 2, and 66 minutes on July 6.”

Thanks…I feel much better.

However you feel – complaining about weather in Seattle is uncouth.  Add to that having habitated California during any part of your life and talking about the sunshine there: social suicide.  If you are going to live here, you have to learn to tough it out and keep your complaining clandestine and in hushed voices with fellow transplants from sunnier climes.  The good news is there are a lot of transplants to kvetch with.  Having spent my childhood and the past decade here, I have some local cred, but I was forever ruined by spending ten years in the land of endless summer – Los Angeles.  Its also the land of endless sprawl, traffic and people and I don’t miss that although I do miss my parents and I miss the sunshine.  I don’t care about heat, I just like the gossamer sparkle sunshine brings and how it transforms color and my mood.  The last two years were tough where spring behaved like a sullen teenager, really more of an extended and slightly warmer winter that reluctantly converted to summer sometime in July, only to be swept away again in October.

So I do take those weather reports personally. Which is why I also frequent UW meteorologist Cliff Mass’ site because I find it more optimistic. Case in point – Cliff’s Valentine’s Day post which peruses long range forecasts that predict a warmer than normal spring (albeit long range forecasts are not are always reliable). Cliff’s closing sentence:

“My gut feeling from these forecasts and the persistence of the West Coast ridge pattern, is that this will be a far better spring than during the last two years”

Thanks for that Valentine, Cliff. Let’s hope we have one of those redeeming springs where everything comes alive at once, and you thank your lucky stars you are present to witness it.

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