What’s the weather like in Washington?

Submitted by unoriginalAF69429 t3_xxip8f in Washington

I’m from the north east plains area and I’m thinking hard about moving to the west coast. I can look at a weather app, but I’m looking for something less numbery.

It seems there’s two mountain ranges separated by a valley. Is that right? Is it pretty gloomy west of the western mountains, desert east of the western, then like a high desert on the west side of the second set?

I’ve heard Washington has almost no sunny days too. Is that like bright but can’t see the sun or more the dark overcast before a thunderstorm?

Edited east to west. Oops.

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terretreader t1_irca2zz wrote

So you have the cascade range... West of the cascade range is more temperate, wetter and less snow in the low lands. Central WA is high desert and quite sunny and warm. NE Washington is forestry mountains and beautiful weather and outdoor recreation. Also snow is more likely in E. WA, hotter and dryer summers then W. WA

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LongDistRider t1_irca5l9 wrote

Washington is split on the Cascade mountain range. Western Washington gets more rain fall. Because of our unique geography we have micro climates. So what is true for one may not necessarily be true for all areas. Then we have the convergence zone which can bring wild and unique weather at any given point in time. When it snows in western Washington lowlands everything will pretty much shut down after about 1/2".

Right now outside my window it is sunny and beautiful. Temps are in the 70s.

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intrepidated t1_ircb571 wrote

The nice months are late-May through early-Oct, highs for most people of 60-90 and lows from 30-55 (a bell curve over those months, naturally). The rain/snow is the opposite - late-Oct through early-May, highs of 25-55 and lows of 10-40.

It's pretty much sunny through the mid period of the nice months, and pretty much consistent rain through the mid period of the other months. Outside of that it can either be pleasant or grey and drizzly. Some years you get grey and drizzle up until the Summer Solstice (like this year), and the sun can continue well past the Fall Equinox (like this year). Everything right now is all browned out and dry as a bone with little to no rain in sight for a lot of WA. Fires are a problem and there's a lot of smoke. Other years we'll be getting drenched.

You'll get some variation on this theme depending on East vs West and elevation. There's a banana belt out on the islands, a lot more snow in the mountains, and a lot more heat and cold out East. Overall it's decent enough but you have to like rain and cool more than dry and warm or you'll be miserable.

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gothling13 t1_ircin1l wrote

We have something called “sun breaks” that I have heard are unique to Washington. Strangely, they tend to impact traffic. It will be gray and crappy, you’ll be driving, and then BAM! You get hit directly in the eyeball and you can’t see for a few seconds.

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DeaditeMessiah t1_irclsdi wrote

About 40-60 degrees and sprinkling. Except on special occasions.

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Rocketgirl8097 t1_irco9f1 wrote

East of the cascades we are in a rain shadow so a lot of weather gets blocked by the mountains. I wouldn't call it high desert though ... one because it is technically not desert, and two it is geographically not high in elevation. It is common to get 100+ in summer and 10F in winter. The humidity is low so the heat doesn't feel as bad as humid places. Because of the rain shadow average snowfall is only about 10 in here in the Columbia basin where I live (the lowest and hottest part of the state) but more snow the further north you go. We brag about 300 days with sunshine here, though probably not all day on some of those days lol. The overcast times generally do not produce rain. We do occasionally get some pretty good winds that knock down trees and power lines but nothing close to tornado level. I find it blessedly free from natural disaster risks.

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quantumspork t1_ird0m6f wrote

At a very rough level, the only significant mountains are the Cascades. West of the Cascades the climate is very temperate. Warm in the summer, cool in the winter. Occasional heat waves of 90+ degrees for 3-5 days in the summer, occasional cold snaps of less than 32 in the winter.

The sun is harder to describe. Summer it is almost always bright and sunny, rarely rains, can be very dry. Not too many cloudy days. Fall, Winter and Spring are different. We almost never get thunderstorms, but count on variations of mist, drizzle, light and heavy rain from late October to early May. You can go weeks without seeing the sun because of cloud cover, so it is mostly grey with variable amounts of light and moisture.

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vast1983 t1_ird519u wrote

Replying to unoriginalAF69429 (#48,510)

Yes, but if you go west of puget sound and out to the Olympic peninsula, you get the temperate climate without the Urban/suburban crush of the greater Seattle Metro area. There's a town called Sequim that is in a "rain shadow".... https://www.olympicrainshadow.com/olympicrainshadowmap.html So you get the benefit of more sun with the moderate winters also.

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Or if you're super rich and have a boat, the south San Juan Islands, haha.

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