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By Anna Borisovskaya, UW Psychiatry R3 One day in June in Seattle, you will stand on the Waterfront next to the Pike Market, perhaps smelling a fresh bouquet of flowers that you had just bought, or biting into the perfectly ripe apple grown on a farm outside of the city, and you will see nothing but blue skies and blue waters ending somewhere in a line of snow-capped Olympic mountains. Then you will know that the rain you’ve lived through during the Seattle winter had been worth it, just to have a summer full of the days such as the one you’re enjoying right now. We have a mild climate without significant variations in temperature between what essentially appears to be two seasons: summer and winter. Yes, it does drizzle most of the winter. However, this is the Evergreen State, and though it may be gray and wet, there will be green grass under your feet. It will suddenly get warm in January or February, a promise of spring to come, and you may enjoy the tentatively blooming cherry trees. They will bloom again, in their full glory, by March or April. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any more beautiful, apple trees will burst into an even more luxurious pink and white color, along with tulips and field flowers. While spring is spectacular, summer is perhaps even more so. In our temperate climate, the temperature rarely rises above 85, and most of the time it’s in the 70s, dry, and gorgeously green wherever you look. There is not a block of city ground where trees are not planted (or a coffee shop on the corner). Most of the buildings are planned around nature, and Seattleites are notoriously proud of their gardens (the beauty of which is helped by the rain when it does come). And I believe that only the East Coast fall eclipses the beauty of fall in Seattle. Even in October, you will wear only a light jacket. In winter, you will rarely need more than something waterproof from North Face. Lately, we’ve had snow for about a week a year, which is not easy to deal with considering that our city is hilly and not set up for snow cleaning. Still, the buses have chains on their tires and you can still get wherever you need to go if you would rather not spin your wheels on the streets. You can probably tell that I’m favorably biased. I love Seattle and feel the climate here could not be more enjoyable. But it doesn’t rain here all the time, and the summers are entirely worth every minute of the winter rain. Also, considering everything else that Seattle has to offer – great skiing nearby, hiking that can, if you want it, be nearly year-round, walkable neighborhoods, a thriving art and culture scene, and citizens concerned about the environment and beauty of the city where they live, does it really matter if it rains more often than it does in California? Further resources for contemplation and edification: |
| Department | Harborview Medical Center | UW Medical Center | VA Puget Sound Health Care System |
