With much of the rest of the nation suffering under scorching relentless heat, KOMO-TV’s Scott Sistek was inspired by our cool gray skies to figure out how much summer Seattle has enjoyed this year. The answer: Exactly 78 minutes of 80-degree or warmer temperatures, as measured by the University of Washington’s rooftop weather station. Or more specifically: 12 minutes on July 2, and 66 minutes on July 6.
And if you think 80 degrees is a high bar for the Pacific Northwest, Sistek also looked at 75 degrees: “a whopping 18 hours and 48 minutes.”
Given my druthers, I’d take 68 degrees and cloudy over 98 with equal humidity any day (or night) of the week. But I gotta say, this is definitely the coolest, grayest summer I’ve seen since I started gardening 13 years ago.
last summer was just as bad. but remember 09? 104 degrees, and no george fucking bush in the white house!
Summer in San Francisco is about the same as we’re having this year. But winter in San Francisco is gloriously sunny and warm.
“All Summer in a Day”
Ten day forecast for Portland…read it and weep
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/97…
what can’t portland do better than seattle? I ask! 🙂
Currently in Missouri and it was 90 at 9 this morning, and the heat index for today is over 110. We have had excessive heat warnings for basically the past two weeks. I am jealous of the good, nice, cool Seattle weather.
And your garden will die of mildew and fungus, Goldy, while my New Jersey tomatoes and green beans will be monsters. Give me the heat any day. In New Jersey only the strong survive.
I just got back from DC, where it had cooled down to 85-90 on the days I was there, with a blazing hot sun. I was grateful for AC everywhere I went and even more thankful to return to a cloudy drizzly NW evening. And the promise of some lovely high-70s sunny days later this week.
S.A.D. is starting to kick in a little too early.
@5
1. Jobs
2. Driving (and that’s already an incredibly low bar in Seattle)
Even whilst sweltering in the Midwest heat and humidity, I’d – still take this over the dismal NW any day. And I’m a native.
If I may. Austin, for the last 10 days: Today: 102, then 102, 102, 100, 104, 104, 102, 101, 101, 101, 102. Let’s trade.
ugh, the overnight low for Chicago tomorrow is 82. What’s the use of summer if you can’t even go outside in the evening (let alone while the sun’s out) to enjoy yourself? At least if it’s cold you can put on more clothes.
Rain is cool and I know the rest of the country is in flames, but this shit still aint right!
seems the sweet spot between ughs might be a midday 82 and overnight 68, yes?
Compared to everywhere else, I’d much rather have this summer weather. I still hold out hope for a sunny August.
@11, you’re not sweltering anywhere in the Midwest. You go from you’re air-conditioned home, to your air-conditioned car, to your air-conditioned work. I lived in TN for years and that’s what life is like during the summer.
Piper @7,
Oh my gosh, Piper, I actually envy you something: Jersey Tomatoes! (Jersey sweet corn ain’t to shabby either.) I look forward to gorging on them in a few weeks when I head back East.
Most of the country has hot summers. If that’s what you like, feel free to relocate.
@7 i’m fine with cool grey skies and mold. you can keep you heat and your state full of awful douchebags.
I’m studying in Madison, WI for the summer, 115 degree heat index every day. A lot of places don’t have A/C either. My apartment doesn’t. Basically it’s like being really hungover and stuck in the kitchen of a Little Caesars Pizza with a bunch of gutterpunks and their panting pitbulls. Oh and another thing to be thankful for in the PNW. The health of our aquaculture. All the lakes here (including the great lakes) are filthy, smell like shit, filled with heavy metals and give you itchy parasites.
Jersey tomatoes aren’t any better than any other sun-ripened tomato.
@24… Yes they are.
It’s not just the climate and the soil, it’s the variety. The big, old, ugly beefsteaks that used to be grown in quantity before Campbells decided it needed uniform size and shape to fit its equipment.
I’m not saying there aren’t great tomatoes elsewhere. I’ve eaten some right out of my own garden. But Jersey beefsteaks are something special.
I know it’s not the soil. They have wildly varying soil conditions in Jersey.
I’m pretty well versed in the different varieties of tomato.
Jersey was famous for the Ramapo, a near-extinct hybrid that’s making a comeback. You should google it – I forget who’s producing them again (Rutgers rings a bell). Not that they’d grow well in Seattle, but I’m planning on trying them in Denver next summer.
As long as its above 60 and not raining which it has for most of the summer since june its fine.
That said, please have hotness when I visit for 12 days next week. Besides me, I mean.
Goldy, here’s an article you’ll find interesting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/dining…
This is the quote I find most interesting.
But enjoy those tomatoes. They will be wonderful, whether they really do surpass others or not.
Let’s just not get into a pissing match over the relative merits of Walla Walla sweets and Vidalia’s. People have died for less.