Washington Weather - Daily Weather pics and reports! (Vancouver: lawns, thunderstorms)

[MechAndy]

04kL4nD, I hope you enjoy it here we do.
Oakland is just a hop, skip and a jump from our place down there.

The weather, nature and the traffic were the reasons that brought us here.
Oakland has nicer weather than where we were at so I’m wondering how you will find the weather.

It’s been going on 5 years since we bought up here.
For me I find that ugliness of post covid is more prevalent in our area of Washington rather than in Danville.

[04kL4nD]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

04kL4nD, I'm surprised too and remember many pre-pandemic posts where you really seemed to enjoy the area. I guess things changed over time and not for the better.

While no place is perfect, the PNW has many beautiful aspects. Spring and fall are my favorite seasons. You're gonna need to get out there and explore all there is to see and do now that the snow is melting in the Cascades. The WA coast is beautiful as well along with all the lakes, islands, Hoh rain forest, etc...

Curious how you wound up in WA over other places?

Derek

I honestly loved living in Oakland...until I didn't. The city was on a real upswing and I saw a lot of potential until around 2019. Without piling on, let's just say that several things happened after the worst of the pandemic that made us decide to leave Oakland, and then we started thinking about life outside of the Bay, and then CA. I don't want to pile on because we still love California, the Bay, and the nice parts of Oakland, but I turn 40 next year, and we honestly just wanted to buy a home in a nice, quiet, and safe place and have a backyard and more space. I swore I'd never want to live in the suburbs, but I guess life happens and priorities change

I was pushing hard for a move to Anchorage since it's also got a lot of potential and fantastic access to the 'real' Alaska, but friends and family did a great job of convincing us to reconsider. I've always loved Seattle, but the city RE values are basically the same as the Bay, so we gave SW King County a look and got lucky with our first home purchase. My husband and I miss the food and our friends back in CA, but places like Tahoe and Wine Country have semi close approximates in Snoqualmie and Woodinville, while being way closer. Fortunately, we've been able to explore a bit, and CA doesn't really have an answer for the San Juan islands or the Olympic peninsula. We are really looking forward to late summer to check out Mt. Rainier and the North Cascades, but needless to say we aren't bored at all.

The PNW isn't perfect, and we're still getting adjusted to WA and homeownership in general, but our QOL is so much better with a lower population density, and we kind of wish we had made the move sooner. Thankfully CA got all of our rain and it's felt like summer since May. I'm sure November will be a rough adjustment with the lack of daylight hours and the heavy rain, but that's what Mexico and Hawaii are for

Keep the photos coming btw-- I'm into photography too and I've always enjoyed your work

Originally Posted by MechAndy

04kL4nD, I hope you enjoy it here we do.
Oakland is just a hop, skip and a jump from our place down there.

The weather, nature and the traffic were the reasons that brought us here.
Oakland has nicer weather than where we were at so I’m wondering how you will find the weather.

It’s been going on 5 years since we bought up here.
For me I find that ugliness of post covid is more prevalent in our area of Washington rather than in Danville.

We will actually be in the Bay next weekend. It's not a bad flight at all, and we're only about 15-20 min from SeaTac so it's pretty great.

I think we've been really lucky with weather this year. Winter was super mild (I grew up on the East Coast, so CA spoiled me). I feel like we had maybe 2 weeks of spring and are already in the thick of summer, but I guess we shall see. CA seems like it took all of our rain, so the jury is out on how much 'worse' the weather is. Oakland was pretty great and you could basically assume the forecast was dead on, while hear it changes so quickly that I find weather apps are only accurate on an hourly basis.

Not sure where you are in WA, but I can safely say that where we live is nicer than 90% of Oakland

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

Curious how you wound up in WA over other places?

Derek

I have an easy answer for this. CA residents,especially Bay Area residents, and especially eastbay fogbelt residents (Berkeley, Oakland, El Cerrito), need a location where the summers are similarly cool, as the Bay Area. This excludes pretty much all the rest of the country beyond the West Coast. And maritime environments tend to draw one, too, after living on the Bay and so close to the ocean.

Those two things really narrow down the options.

[04kL4nD]

That, plus no state income tax, plus being LGBT friendly, etc

It's funny because I always used to think of Seattle as being a lateral move with worse weather, but I clearly was wrong. QOL is so much better here, but it's definitely not for everyone.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

That, plus no state income tax, plus being LGTB friendly, etc

It's funny because I always used to think of Seattle as being a lateral move with worse weather, but I clearly was wrong. QOL is so much better here, but it's definitely not for everyone.

04kL4nD, curious if that QOL is based mainly on the COL compared to the Bay Area? I know for us that was one of the big factors. Affordability means more home for your $$ or lower monthly expenses plus no income tax. And importantly, you can afford to live in a nicer, lower crime area.

Then there's the sheer beauty of the PNW and all that is has to offer for outdoor activities. Of course, its not for everyone including some from more southern states who need more sun throughout winter, etc...

Derek

[mayfair]

The weather in the northern Sound is super nice. It's been sunny, dry, 40s at night but it warms into the 60s during the day and we're predicted to hit 70 on Monday.

[MechAndy]

Today is a nice day.
We are having family from Toronto visit so it’s been a busy day for us here doing yard work.
This morning we found some baby birds near our front patio.
Their parents are happy our landscaper is done in that area and are taking good care of them .

[04kL4nD]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

04kL4nD, curious if that QOL is based mainly on the COL compared to the Bay Area? I know for us that was one of the big factors. Affordability means more home for your $$ or lower monthly expenses plus no income tax. And importantly, you can afford to live in a nicer, lower crime area.

Then there's the sheer beauty of the PNW and all that is has to offer for outdoor activities. Of course, its not for everyone including some from more southern states who need more sun throughout winter, etc...

Derek

TBH, no state income tax is great, but we have quickly discovered that the state of WA makes up for it in other ways. Our car registration and getting WA DLs was pretty expensive; sales tax is high at 10.1%; our property taxes are definitely higher than what they would be in CA; dining out seems to cost about the same, if not more; 20% tax on liquor is definitely noticeable; etc. Gasoline, utilities, groceries, and insurance are cheaper, but not by a huge margin. Yes, we did buy a home for far less than what we would pay in CA, but owning a home just costs way more than renting, and Washington is still a fairly expensive place to own, compared to say, Vegas.

For us, QOL isn't just about saving money (although it helps!); it's being able to actually enjoy what the PNW has to offer. Part of that has to do with the fact that there's just far fewer people to have to battle when trying to access outdoorsy stuff, or even just going grocery shopping. It's pretty easy to just hop in the car and drive for an hour or two and explore, whereas the parts of CA we really loved are either too far for a day trip, or they're just too crowded to be enjoyable anymore. I also think that after living in CA for so long, we were starting to feel like we'd seen/done everything, whereas the PNW has so much that's brand new to us. Overall, we feel less stressed, less hurried, and we also don't worry about crime like we did back in the Bay, and I think those factors have had the biggest boost on our QOL so far. We wouldn't have moved up here if we both had to battle hour long commutes to Seattle for work, and thankfully the WFH culture is pretty robust up here.

I think we're pretty happy with our move, but it will be interesting to see how we feel once the novelty wears off...

[MtnSurfer]

Another beautiful spring day in Vancouver reaching the mid 70s. Here's a pic from the front yard which shows the need to mow as the clover blooms are going crazy. I purposely brought then into our yards for the soil benefits. But in spring they really go gang busters along with our California poppies and other plants that love all this sun.





Derek

[mayfair]

We haven't made it to 70 degrees for a while, but a heat wave is expected midweek pushing it up to the mid 70s and possibly 80 degrees. It's been unusually dry and sunny for this time of year which makes for beatiful days.

When it hits 74 degrees, people will start complaining it's too hot