are Seattleites really this insecure?

The_Tim

I kid you not, this is what passes for front-(web)-page news at the Seattle Times:

Seattle is only No. 3 on favorite-city list?!!!

Jack Broom wrote:

If we only had a little more sunshine ...

In a national study released today, Seattle placed third on a list of major U.S. cities in which Americans would like to live, topped only by Denver and San Diego.
...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says Denver officially gets 115 days of pure sunshine a year, a figure that doesn't count partly sunny or partly cloudy days. San Diego gets 146 sunny days a year.

Both of those easily top the average of 58 sunny days recorded at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Are people around here really so insecure that they need some national survey to affirm their choice to live here? Pitiful.

tomtom

Geez, Tim.

Who peed in your Cheerios this morning? Weather got you down?

The_Tim

Hah, I love the weather here! And I'm actually in a dandy mood today.

I just think nonsense like this is, as I said, pitiful.

perfectfire

Seattle Times article wrote:

But Kate Horle, spokeswoman for the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, hazarded a guess: "Maybe it's our 300 days of sunshine a year."

Nice try, Ms. Horle. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says Denver officially gets 115 days of pure sunshine a year, a figure that doesn't count partly sunny or partly cloudy days. San Diego gets 146 sunny days a year.

HA! I've heard that line a bunch of times and it always seemed fishy to me since San Jose (area where I'm) also claims 300 days a year and I'm pretty sure Denver doesn't get more sun than my hometown.

eskercurve

I like having steel grey skies many days of the year in the winter. I'm quite fair skinned and do not like tons of sunshine.

Pfft. Seattle has so much to offer that it is as Tim described - pitiful that people would need to affirm their choice of where to live a national survey.

Lake Hills Renter

I like the cloudy days as well. I've realized in the last few years that what I dislike the most about summer isn't the heat (that's second), it's the brightness. My eyes much prefer the diffused gray skies to bright sunshine. Summer sun literally hurts my eyes.

(Before anyone starts throwing out snide comments about Washington not having real heat, I lived in Texas for 30 years -- I know heat. :? )

EconE

The whole country is geocentric. I'm sure the #4 city thought they should be #3 and so on and so on.

It's pretty funny. Every place has it's pluses and minuses. Not sure if there really is a "Best Place". Of course...we'd all like to believe that utopia is just a move away from wherever we might be...even if it's within the same area.

I'm not so sure why so many people picked Denver. I can undesrtand San Diego I guess...but Denver? I have a feeling that when people "choose" Denver, that they actually envision a place like Boulder. Who cares if they have 300 days of sunshine a year. It's referred to as "West Kansas" for a reason. The smog is HORRIBLE and...ok...so there is good skiing close by.

Yeah...having spent much of my life in So. Cal....I have wondered what it would be like to have more sunshine up here....only catch is that if the weather really was "pleasant" here...so many other things would suck as the whole Puget Sound area would have So. Cal. sprawl. (much worse than now). Not to mention...the rain cleans the air nicely. If it didn't rain, you'd never get to see the mountains due to increased pollution from increased population.

Imagine the traffic here if the population was the same as L.A. and the surrounding cities. Yuck.

Oh...and WRT sunglasses...I think that it's much brighter here and sunglasses are more necessary as 1. people get used to "dimmer" skies so the sunny days seem that much brighter...and especially 2. When there is a sunbreak during a rainstorm while driving, the roads reflect the sun and can be BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT!

Personally, I have a tough time with the overcast weather. I certainly doesn't make me think any less of Seattle as a city however...and the PNW is still one of the most beautiful (populated) places in the U.S. IMO.