Weather Woes in the Pacific NW

 

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it

Rain, rain go away.  Come again another day.  Remember that little rhyme? Well, I don’t think the rain is listening in the Pacific Northwest.  Rainfall is over 6” above average and more is already in the forecast.  Right now I would say that the weather really sucks.  Actually, all over the United States the rain has been falling way more than normal.

Even though summer officially starts in June, June doesn't necessarily mark the beginning of nice weather  in Washington and Oregon or anyplace else for that matter.

I’ve always felt May was a warmer and nicer month than June but what do I know.  It seems to change every time I say that.    Averages don't mean a lot. The only thing we do know is that usually there is a better chance of great weather with much less rain the closer we get to the middle of the summer.  Well, it's not the middle of the summer yet so we're still hoping clouds will move on out of here. 

The time to think about visiting the Pacific NW really starts in July.  My favorite months are definitely August and September.  There is very little rain and temperatures can get quite warm.  However, if a little moisture and cooler temperatures don't bother you, you'll find the scenery awesome anytime.


The really great thing about spending the summer here is that when everyone everywhere else is complaining about the heat, we're not.  That's about the time the perfect weather starts to arrive.  Central air is not considered a necessity west of the Cascades because when it does get hot it doesn't last over a few days.  Besides that temperatures usually cool down at night.  You rarely hear people around here complaining about the high heat, tornadoes or hurricanes.  However, with that said ........ winters can be gloomy, spring can be wet and fall can actually be quite pleasant.  It's just the waiting for the summer and knowing that it's arrived that tends to be confusing.

So, why the wetter than normal weather this June?  Well, I checked it out.  According to the weather service all this rain (and it's all over) is unusual because of a stubborn dip in the jet stream over the East from high pressure all the way to Greenland!  So, it’s Greenland’s fault!

I want perfect weather.  I want it warm not hot.  We definitely know hot.  When we moved to Texas many years ago I loved the heat of the summer at first.  It was marvelous I thought.  Well, I thought that for the first few years we lived there.  After that it seemed the summers couldn’t end soon enough.  With humid high temperatures in the upper 90’s during the day and humid low temperatures in the lower 90’s at night, summers were just too long. 

I’m not so sure there really is a place with perfect weather except the late summer in the Pacific NW.  Even the deserts of Arizona in the winter aren’t perfect.  It definitely gets cold and the wind blows way too much and way too often. We're still looking for Utopia but we probably always will be.

The snowbird idea is to enjoy the northern warm weather during the summer and the southern warm weather during the winter.  However, it doesn’t always work out that way.   We're still waiting for the rain to go away and the temperatures to start going up.  I certainly hope that time comes before it's time to hit the road again.

'Tis life on the road.