Is there a gloomier city than Seattle?

What about that hipster city with the shigella outbreak?

Portland is actually quite a bit sunnier and warmer than Seattle R1, since it's farther South.

When i lived in Buffalo in the late 90s and early aughts, I'd say that's about as gloomy and dark as you could get. A full 6 months out of the year (sometimes 7) were under cloud cover. I got Seasonal Affective Disorder there and had to get one of those Ott lights to function at work during the winter months.

Glasgow is supposed to be extremely gloomy and depressing.

Perry Como liked it.

Is it really that cloudy so often? I always thought of Seattle as sunny when not raining. I would actually kind of love it now. I have the very beginning of cataracts (too early to remove) and the symptom is sensitivity to bright light and glare. I can't leave the house without a hat and sunglasses. I always loved sunny days and I distinctly remember a day a few years ago when the forecast was for several overcast days (this was drought ridden California), I got a little giddy. The things about aging that surprise me. I get happy when it's cloudy.

The forecast seems to indicate rain and clouds through Friday, R6.

Minsk, Yakutsk, Norilsk, Ulaanbataar...

r4 giving us the benefit of his/her ignorance.

[quote] Minsk, Yakutsk, Norilsk, Ulaanbataar...

We're talking about cities where people actually want to live.

Well on the plus side it's almost never cold enough for snow. And summers I expect are mild and often sunny like in Victoria, Canada.

I lived in Seattle for 5 years and moved south on the Olympic Penisula over 5 years ago. This year has been particularly gloomy, but other winters haven't been. After living in hot, arid and sunny New Mexico for 20 years I was ready for a change of scene.

Yes. Anchorage, Alaska.

Beijing.

Dehli

Pittsburgh.

Shashkatoon

My God, that pic of Beijing...if that's haze from pollution, how do these people breathe that air and not end up with constant respiratory infections?!

LA wasn't exactly Eden in the 1970s.

Environmentalism is a luxury good.

Ithaca, NY in winter

I was offered a job there but didn't take it because of the climate. It was about 20 years ago and it was always so dreary and drizzly.

I hear Portland is pretty gloomy as well...

Huntington, WV…

If you’ve ever been, you’ll know the arts district is one store long.

I have visited Seattle three times in November, just after the time change, and I love it. There is something magical about a city with a vibrant, walkable downtown (except those hills!) when it gets dark at 3PM while it is still bustling with activity. I've been there several times in spring and summer, but it is not as enjoyable as in late fall.

I hate the kind of weather where it just sits there, the clouds in a low doom gloom . Seattle can be like that. And so can many other places in the Pacific Northwest. I lived in the rain shadow north of Seattle, near Victoria, and the weather was dandy, but I couldn’t make a living. I found Binghamton NY to be depressing from November to June.

Any place I hang my hat is home...

In addition, I find Seattle has a lot of bald men….

You get full sun between 3 and 5 pm nearly every day. Noon hour is colder than the hour before or after. I think it’s the Sound belching cold air.

The weather gives five different shows throughout the day. On the plus side, I see blooming roses past Halloween!

Vancouver is basically the same weather and days of precipitation and overcast as Seattle. Both are nice to visit, but I couldn't deal living there with so many dark and dreary days.

R29 some kind of Calgarian

The constant drizzle soaks the matted scalps of the full headed men, and pneumonia finishes them off in short order. Pure Darwinism.

One weird thing about denizens of the PNW is that we rarely use umbrellas. I guess we're just so beaten down by the 155 days of rain a year we don't even try

Seattle (and all of the Pacific Northwest) is only gloomy from November to April. April-June and October have a mix of sun and clouds. But July-September, throughout the Northwest, there are almost no clouds. Day after day of clear blue skies - not even puffy clouds. Cloudy and drizzly by itself wouldn't be a deal breaker for me, But Seattle is so far north, that midwinter days have only 8 hours of daylight. I'm from a drier part of the Pacific Northwest, but even in my area, the winter is quite cloudy and the midwinter days are very short. In an ideal world, most of the Pacific Northwest would have permission to pack up and move to the desert, at least for the months of December, January, and February. (In fact, many Northwestern people do this once they retire). The rest of the year is bearable, but those three months are very wearing on the soul and the spirit.

I too have noticed that the sun shines between 3 and 430 pm in winter in gloomy West Coast towns . It shines through the imperceptible slit of light between the horizon and low lying clouds that in their inertia have nowhere to go.

I can't handle cold and rain anymore. My dream is to move to Palm Springs in the next few years.

[quote] In an ideal world, most of the Pacific Northwest would have permission to pack up and move to the desert, at least for the months of December, January, and February. (In fact, many Northwestern people do this once they retire). The rest of the year is bearable, but those three months are very wearing on the soul and the spirit.

THIS.

I was staying with family for about a month during a particularly cloudy Winter month, and I had to get the hell out of there.

I was getting really depressed from the short days and cloudy skies.

It was really awful, and like you said... it was trying on the soul.

I fled to the desert Southwest, and the minute the sun hit me, I felt so much better. Everything about my mental disposition changed.

The sun is trying to peek through the clouds today.

More gloomy weather on the way!

Looks like the West Coast is going to get pummeled!

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and lived in the city for 25 years (minus three childhood years kn Arizona) before moving here (Seattle) twelve years ago. It's rarely uncomfortably warm in the summer (and July - September is pretty much sunny daily), if it gets chilly (20's) in the winter is usually never more than 2-3 days all winter, the hills and climate make everything feel lush and green 10 months a year, and it isn't even that nasty of rain that often at that. Plus, because we're so far north that in the early summer you learn what crepuscular really means for yourself. Me, that and the weather are what i actually love most, and not for a second do i miss blazing hot summers or ice coated winters, which i havs seen a number of this lifetime to suffice.