Ugh! Sunshine Season Arrives

Today's Weather Alert for Seattle

Seattle...known for it's cloudy and rainy days, but what nonresidents do no realize is that Seattle can be unforgivably sunny and the city doesn't receive that much rain annually. My favorite months of the year to live in Seattle are definitely October through April. Why you may ask....because 6 out 7 days a week Seattle is at least partly cloudy...sounds wonderful, right? Well, then there are the months of June-August, where rainfall is rare, and the newspapers here document the dry streak of Seattle's summers; and it's safe to say, that this is my least favorite time to be living in the city.

I moved to Seattle in 2012, and the city's dry streak was 48 days that year. Then in 2013, it was 35 days, and although 2014 didn't have a dry streak over 30 days, it was excruciating hot. In 2012, I remember that the temperatures were going to be in the low 80 degrees, and the Weather Channel was posting heat warnings; I was flabbergasted. Being from the Midwest, I am use to heat warnings being issued for high 90-degree weather with over a 100 degree heat index, but 80-degrees? I joked with my parents (who still live in the Midwest) what wimps Seattleites were about "hot" weather. But then....the 80-degree day arrived and I was no longer joking. What changed my sense of humor? No air conditioning in Seattle apartments. No air conditioning? Yep, you could be paying almost $2,000 for a studio apartment (which I was in 2012) and it doesn't have air conditioning, because Seattle is such a green city. My studio apartment in 2012 didn't have ceiling fan,  no screen on the patio door, and one tiny window that barely opened. In 2013, I moved into a one-bedroom apartment just a couple of blocks from my first apartment. This one has a ceiling fan, two large screened patio doors (one off the bedroom and one off the living room), and a window that opened; however, summers are still terrible, especially if there isn't a breeze.

I am constantly reminded of how I am the "minority" of Seattleites, because people wait all year for the sunny, summer days. In my perfect reality, Seattle would have only three seasons: winter, spring and fall. You must be thinking that Seattle must be having a long dry streak already, with me whining about all the sunshine...we are on day 4 of the dry streak. At this moment I bet you are glad you are miles from me when Seattle starts to get into double digit dry streak days. Here are additional reasons why summer is my least favorite season:

• I sneeze a lot in the summer; therefore, I have diagnosed myself with an allergy to sunshine.
• I hike a lot in the PNW, and in the summer, more people are on the trails. I go on trails to soak up nature and breathe the fresh air....not to maneuver around crowds people.
• The hot weather makes only ice cream sound good, and it becomes 2 out of 3 of my meals; cereal is usually the third meal of the day. Therefore, this makes my oven the most useless appliance in the summer, because nothing is worth cooking if it is going to increase the temperature of my apartment by a thousand degrees.
• Back of the knee sweat...a reminder to anyone that owns leather furniture or leather car interior that leather is not meant for summertime.
• No matter the temperature, the only coffee beverage I drink is hot coffee, so with every sip, I am just getting hotter and hotter. 
• I walk almost everywhere in Seattle; therefore, I show up to my destinations in the summertime looking like I just walked through a fountain.
• Also, walking to grocery stores, makes the return trip home a mad dash/marathon because things will melt or go bad in the heat. And who wants soupy ice cream...not this girl!
• The "unpeeling" of one's clothes when getting undressed, and you have to double-check that your epidermis didn't come off too.
• Everyone visits Seattle in the summer. I live near the Seattle Center (where the Space Needle is located) and my neighborhood is so busy. Reservations are longer in restaurants, and tourists clog up the sidewalks. 
• Since my body is made up of 70% coffee and Trader Joe's Cookie Butter, I become a walking mosquito target when hiking, and no amount of carcinogenic bug spray will keep them from devouring me. Also, every insect with a stinger, follows me; apparently the smell of cookie butter sweat is more appealing than pollen.
• The sun is always there...meaning you are up before 5am for no apparent reason for weeks on end. Then when it is dark, it's too hot to sleep.
• Seattle smells bad in the summer. Rainfall here always makes the city smell refreshing (Yankee Candle could create a Seattle Rainfall candle and it would be a major seller); however, with dry streaks, the city doesn't get a break from smelling like dead fish and stale urine.
• Most waterfalls are dried up in the summer. I expect even more this year, because the mountain areas had record-low snowfalls last winter. This also means this summer we will have more forest fires because of how dry the ground will be because of the lack of moisture from melting snow.
• You cannot get in the water (lake, rivers, puget sound) to cool off during the summer because they are still 40 degrees and you will get hypothermia. On the news, they are constantly reminding the public not to get in the water to cool off, because how quickly the onset of hypothermia can be for individuals.
• Some of my favorite fruits are no longer in season. And if they are in stores, they are not as tasty.
• The area becomes less green. The area is usually such a vibrant green, but in the summer, because of the severe decrease in rainfall, it is more a dull green and in some locations an unattractive brown.
• The oily sunscreen glow. When you have fair complexion, the occurrence of sunspots and sunburning is a real fear if you do not apply sunscreen every five minutes.
• Summer noise. People stay out later in the summer and overall noise level is louder. In the winter, the silence is so peaceful because most people are staying indoors.
• Sunshine is blinding and if you are a pedestrian, your chances of being hit by a driver or a cyclist is 100,000 times more likely to occur in the summertime.

So for those that love Seattle's summer, enjoy it, because it is only three months of the year....whereas, the other nine months when you are mourning the loss of sunshine...I will be annoyingly happy.