Sunny Days in Sequim? (Seattle, Port Angeles: living in, cost, military)

[pw72]

The difference is between "sunny" and "clear". A sunny day, as a poster mentioned, can be just for a part of the day. A clear day is a day without clouds from dawn till dusk. 300 of those? I don't think even Phoenix comes close to that!

[Trimac20]

If that's the definition of 'sunny days' - the sun shining for at least part of the day - Perth has something like 350 sunny days a year! Only a handful of days will you not see the sun at all. How misleading, Sequim is a cloudy place overall.

[JohnMar1101]

We moved to Sequim in 2005 after living on the sunny equator for ten years, and in Colorado for twenty years before that, and we've found it to be nearly the ideal climate. I was so sick of constant sun and heat and humidity from living on the equator that the cool, cloudiness of Sequim was a tremendous relief. We were also tired of freezing, snowy weather from Colorado, so the relative warmth of Sequim was welcome. And we don't like really hot weather either... anything above 80 is just too warm.

That said, I can't abide having to deal with frequent, soaking rain and mucky ground, but that's not been a problem in Sequim, except a bit during the worst weather in December, January and early February. The metrological PNW winter ends in mid-February, and the rest of the year is quite nice. While it is often cloudy, the clouds are extremely varied and changing, not just a dull, gray overcast like you find in central Oregon and many other cloudy areas, and we see bits of blue sky many more days than we don't. However, all that business of "300 days of sun" refers to days when you see at least a peak of the sun and blue sky, which is fine with me.

That said, I couldn't live along the western Washington or Oregon coast, or the other side of the Olympic Mountains, given those areas simply are too wet for me. Even Seattle's rain pushes me over the edge. I really thrive on the rain shadow of the Sequim area. But I draw a distinction between cloudy days and rainy days, and don't care for mucky, wet ground. Sequim is dry enough at 16" of rain a year that it doesn't feel like a wet climate from a soil perspective, and as I'm sure you'll read elsewhere, you have to irrigate gardens to get them to grow properly here.

We live on top of a hill in Sequim, about 1200 feet above the water and a couple of miles from Sequim Bay, and can often look down on clouds that cover the town itself. On those days we can look out at the Cascade mountains 80 miles away or up into Vancouver Island, those gorgeous summits poking out of the clouds into perfect sunshine. Of course, at other times, we're in those clouds, which is murky but mysterious and has its own charm. Mostly I love the interplay of layered, changeable clouds and bits of blue sky and changing sunshine. The eastern side of our house is mostly glass so we draw the light in every morning and can see the beauty outside. When the sun shines here, its magical, partially because of the way the light works with mountains in back and water in front and the fact that everything is so fresh and green, but also because its a welcome visitor, not a constant, oppressive glare.

Speaking of fresh... we may have the best air in the US here. There is no industry and very little car traffic in the direction of the prevailing breeze, which blows across the Olympic Mountains after coming ashore from thousands of miles of open ocean. Its incredibly clean, fresh and healthy.

As you can tell, I'm not a sun lover (the words "oppressive" and "constantly sunny" belong in the same sentence as far as I'm concerned), but as mentioned before, I'm not a rain lover either, and we absolutely hate snow. Most of the time when it rains in Sequim, its so light that you don't need an umbrella. Just a hat. Its often more mist than real rain.

As others may have mentioned, if you come from just about anywhere west of the Cascades in Oregon, Washington or even northern California, west of the Sierra's all the way down to San Francisco, you'll find Sequim a welcome relief. But if you come from the desert or southern California, and you liked the weather there, you will NOT like Sequim weather.

Also, if you are tired of freezing weather and snow in the Midwest or NE, you won't find much of that here. Some winters we have no snow, and other years just a few inches. Our only cold weather comes when we get an infrequent "Fraser River outflow" when the winds blow from the NE and bring down the cold from the mountains of British Columbia. But those events are rare.

Anyway, if you are a sun lover and need to feel it on your face most days, this is NOT the place for you. But if you love mixing the sun up with lots of interesting clouds and love warm people and cool but not cold weather, along with the natural beauty of the water and the Olympic Peninsula, this just might be heaven.

It certainly is for us.

John M

[rawdge]

The "Sunny Sequim" slogan is really a marketing gimmick, and honestly a pretty good load of B.S. I am from CO where it actually IS sunny most of the time, not at all the case here. Better weather than the rest of Western Washington to be sure, but that's not saying much....

[David Britton]

I was so curious about the reality of whether Sequim is sunnier than surrounding areas, I am running a study to see how much sun actually hits Sequim vs. downtown Seattle, Port Angeles, etc.

The data is clear, it is much brighter in Sequim. Feel free to check my data; there is extensive analysis, graphs, etc on my site below.

Olympic Rain Shadow

[blutziyona]

We have lived in Port Orchard for 7 years and actually the people who previously owned our house moved to Sequim. Living here I've heard from plenty of people that if you want to live in Western WA but don't want all the rain, then move to Sequim. This year they've had more rain then usually, but the whole state has. So if you looking for somewhere sunnier, and love all the green and living in Western WA, Sequim might just be for you!

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by David Britton

I was so curious about the reality of whether Sequim is sunnier than surrounding areas, I am running a study to see how much sun actually hits Sequim vs. downtown Seattle, Port Angeles, etc.

The data is clear, it is much brighter in Sequim. Feel free to check my data; there is extensive analysis, graphs, etc on my site below.

Olympic Rain Shadow

I check area webcams daily. I may move to Seattle next year, so I'm really trying to do my homework the best I can short of actually living there. I also look at Sequim because I see that area being more suitable for some relatives. I tend to agree with you. I often see the skies above Sequim as being much brighter than over Seattle. Even if covered in clouds, it often looks as if the sun wants to break out, whereas Seattle may be "cement" gray. I can imagine the difference in brightness having a positive effect on some people. As for the CD data charts that paint a dismal picture, I don't buy it. Don't know how accurate those charts are, or where the weather station is they use. My eyeballs tell me they are wrong. I recently encountered a family in SoCal that just moved back from Sequim. They told me it was no myth too. Sequim is sunnier and brighter, even if exaggerated by a good amount.

You can also look at the Seattle webcams and see that the area out in the Puget Sound often has either brighter skies, or broken clouds. Maybe the images lose some of their grayness when transported over the Internet

[Hemlock140]

The unique combination of mountains and sea create various mini-climates in the Sequim area. It is a fact that they get less than 1/3 of the rain of Seattle, and do see at least an hour of sun pretty close to 300 days a year. Down by the water Sequim does have wind, and will often have fogs or clouds that last most of the day, with the sun only
out from late afternoon until sunset.

I can speak with experience of the area where my parents live. If you go a few miles up Blue Mountain Road, to about 400' elevation, nearly every day you can see the clouds part as they hit the Olympics, and there will be a hole of blue sky while everything else is clouded over or raining. This is not in Sequim, the mailing address is Port Angeles but is really unincorported Clallam County. If you drive to highway 101 it can be overcast, but from about Lilly Rd up it's clear. There are similar effects
around the area, but you would have to spend a lot of time there to identify the sunniest spots.

[mrslovettstailor]

Originally Posted by CarawayDJ

I check area webcams daily. I may move to Seattle next year, so I'm really trying to do my homework the best I can short of actually living there. I also look at Sequim because I see that area being more suitable for some relatives. I tend to agree with you. I often see the skies above Sequim as being much brighter than over Seattle. Even if covered in clouds, it often looks as if the sun wants to break out, whereas Seattle may be "cement" gray. I can imagine the difference in brightness having a positive effect on some people. As for the CD data charts that paint a dismal picture, I don't buy it. Don't know how accurate those charts are, or where the weather station is they use. My eyeballs tell me they are wrong. I recently encountered a family in SoCal that just moved back from Sequim. They told me it was no myth too. Sequim is sunnier and brighter, even if exaggerated by a good amount.

You can also look at the Seattle webcams and see that the area out in the Puget Sound often has either brighter skies, or broken clouds. Maybe the images lose some of their grayness when transported over the Internet

I agree! I am sure it is not full-on sunshine the whole day thought and maybe that is what the weather-data relies on to be considered a sunny day but I look at the area webcams several times each day and you can see gray all over but often bright spots on the different Sequim cams. Might not be the whole area, I don't know but it does often seem ALOT brighter than everywhere else.

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by mrslovettstailor

I agree! I am sure it is not full-on sunshine the whole day thought and maybe that is what the weather-data relies on to be considered a sunny day but I look at the area webcams several times each day and you can see gray all over but often bright spots on the different Sequim cams. Might not be the whole area, I don't know but it does often seem ALOT brighter than everywhere else.

The only webcam in Sequim that appears to be broken is John Wayne Marina. It's displayed the same sunny image for 2 years. In fact, it says the image was taken in May 2008. I ignore that one though. Hmmm.... maybe the Chamber of Commerce is using that picture for their 300 days of sun claim

But yeah, there is a clear and substantial difference in "brightness".