Thinking of moving from AZ to Seattle
 

My husband has a job opprotunity in Seattle. We are originally from NY, but moved to AZ for the sun. I need sun. Is it a good idea to move?

That is a a really extreme change from "sun" area to an area know for it's lack of sun. I moved from NY to NM for sun. I have been to Seattle a few times - twice in August and the weather was great. I was there last week to visit family that moved there from NM last year and the weather was not as great.

Depending on how close you are to the coast, it can be foggy for a good part of morning in summer. The rest of year...way more rainy, foggy, etc.

If you need sun, you should really think hard and long about this move. [It is also more expensive there.]

http://www.bestplaces.net/compare-ci...son_az/climate

https://outflux.net/weather/noaa/

I love Seattle!! I moved here 25 years ago and was one of the best ideas of my life. Fabulous, vibrant, trendy city. That said...


"I need sun"

NO Seattle is not the place for you.

If you ned sun, don't move to Seattle!

Here are some specifics about Seattle's climate:

http://www.bestplaces.net/climate/ci...ington/seattle

We also have a phenomenon called the "sun break" in which the suns appears for unpredictable lengths of time on cloudy days.

AZ is great for sun; Seattle is great for mountains, water, and big-city amenities.

HTtY

Look at the costs. Seattle has become a really expensive city to buy or rent real estate. All other costs of living have risen accordingly. Traffic is atrocious. Sun is here from March to october, so the cold months are hard to get through.

But schools and many services will be higher quality than in AZ.

<Sun is here from March to october>

Simply not true.

There are plenty of not-sunny days in those months. This entire summer has been mostly gray, cool, and drizzly.

Flip-side there could be cold but brilliant SUNNY days in the winter.

No, don't move to Seattle if you "need sun".

I visited Seattle every summer for 5 years, and the weather was usually gorgeous, but everyone I met said, don't be fooled :-) They all loved it there, it's a great city, but I would find the weather very, very hard to deal with.

(Seattle's already too crowded, the "bad weather" is just what we tell newbies so they don't move here. That's been an insider's joke here since the 80's when half of California was wanting to move north.)

<i>the weather very, very hard to deal with</i>

Not for me, whereas 115 F. in AZ gives me pause.

HTtY

"There are plenty of not-sunny days in those months."
Obviously, no one turns on the button for the sun in March. It is not a black and white issue. The point is that the days are a bit more sunny with warmer weather and once the days get longer.

"This entire summer has been mostly gray, cool, and drizzly." Check out this website for more information: http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/

I'm sitting here in downtown Seattle. I live here. I can see the weather, which by the way is sunny and beautiful today. I don't need a blogspot.

sure, as a local you may know the stories about the 1962 World's Fair. They hired people (mostly young women) to show VIPs around. When the VIP commented on the lovely weather, they were to say, "Yes, but it rains the other 10 months of the year."

The T-shirts say "Seattle Rain Festival October - May. That is fairly accurate. It's not uncommon to get no rain at all during July and August (though not this year), June is very iffy, with more clouds than sun, September is usually pretty nice. But October through May is usually overcast and wet. November is our wettest month, and with the darkness, a time when many locals like to go to a sunnier clime.

My sister married a man from WA and they have lived in Tacoma and Seattle for the past 24 years. She was born and raised in California - and had never suffered from depression until a few years after moving to WA. She had not found a good way to deal with the depression - drugs and artificial light did not help - until they bought a second home in Phoenix, and she uses it as a way to escape the long winters in Seattle.

If you really "need sun," consider that a lack of sunlight can be detrimental to the health of some people.

https://smartasset.com/insights/citi...essing-winters

You are right, scdreamer, some people do get winter depression in the Seattle area because there is so much cloud cover. And virtually everyone who lives here is vitamin D deficient during our long, dark winters. Escaping to a sunny clime is a great way to manage seasonal depression.

Don't move. I have lived in the Midwest, on both coasts, and on the Gulf Coast, so I know all about sun and heat. This week in the Puget Sound area has seen temps in the 60s and 70s with clouds and occasional mist/showers. I wish it could be like this all year. It took me 32 peripatetic years to find paradise and I will never leave.

I think the more significant problem is darkness (not rain).

Because we are so far north (having gloriously long days in late spring early summer) it gets DARK by about 4:15pm in late fall. That can be crushing and I think would more influence "depression" than our rain (which actually isn't that much in inches more that there can be weeks of consistent "gloom" and drizzle).

I need sun too and I want to move to Arizona for it! If you live in Seattle, the weather is better for sunny days. We have a lot of micro-climates here. Going north you run into the convergence zone and often our weather is better in Seattle than over in Issaquah and Bellevue. It does rain but it's the gray that gets me. We usually have a nice, breezy summer from July 5th to October.

I just need to add that I think you are wise to really think about this move. I'm from Vancouver, BC, lived in Oregon and have spent 20 years in Seattle married to a local meteorologist. If sun is that important to you, this truly might not be the place. I am struggling with the weather myself after all these years. There are beautiful days and some years are less rainy than others but it is a gray city often. We do get some sun in winter and sun breaks but that's not really a daily thing. The alternative is to fly to AZ or CA a few times a year. As someone mentioned, the costs are now very high, taxes are bad, home pricing is high and traffic is getting more than difficult. I hate to be someone who doesn't sell this city because it IS beautiful and has been good for us. Plenty of fun dining and restaurants and outdoor activities and if you ski, it's great too. But if it's sun you're really after, I always say it's like 10 weeks a year (yeah, that's a little exaggerated but...)