Miata Mailing List: April 1995, Message #161
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   From: Alan Dahl 
Subject: Re: From Seattle?
   Date: Tue, 4 Apr 1995 13:49:50 -0400

"Doug Klein"  writes:
>On Apr 4, 10:41am, Ken Walker wrote:
>> Subject: From Seattle?
>>      there is a remote (although possible) chance that I may be
>>      transferring soon to Seattle.  Can some of you Miateers in that area
>>      re-assure me at all that you get to put your tops down at least "some
>>      of the time?"  The rest of the country seems to think that it rains
>>      every day there...
>
>
>I don't live there, but I have family and friends up there.The rain story is a
>myth - they get less average rain than NYC, for instance. What is true,
>however, is that it is overcast a lot. They do seem to get a lot of 'wet air'
>(read => light rain/mist), though :).

Shhh! You'll blow our cover! We _want_ everyone else to think it pours rain  
all the time up here!

In reality it does rain some 192 days a year but only about 30 inches or so  
so there is a lot of drizzle and showers. BTW: The folks up in this neck of  
the woods have a gazillion different terms for types of rain, kind of like  
the supposed 40 different words the Eskimos have for snow.

There are usually quite a lot of opportunities to put your top down though  
you should be prepared to put it back up qickly if you're travelling any  
distance. The Puget Sound area is really a dozen or so different  
microclimates and while it may be sunny where you are it could be raining 5  
miles away. Annual rainfall will vary 10" a year in two locations 5 miles  
apart.

We also commonly have something I've seen rarely elsewhere: rain while it's  
sunny! Yup, it'll be blue sky and sunny but there will be one rain cloud a  
couple of miles away dumping rain on you! Weird!

>On the 'to look forward to' side, within a couple of hours or less of Seattle
>are some of the most beautiful mountains in the west, not to mention the ocean
>The back road driving up there is great, just great!

Definately, and the Puget Sound Chapter of the Miata Club (325 members) loves  
to tour thd local roads. We have about 25-30 events a year from tours to  
rallies to autocrosses. I'm sure you'll have a great time up here.

---
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