If you tell someone you’re moving to Seattle, chances are good that the first thing they’ll say is, “Why would you want to move to Seattle? It rains all the time there!” Seattle has never been able to shake its reputation as a particularly rainy city, despite the fact that it gets less average rainfall than Nashville, Dallas, Atlanta, NYC, and several other U.S. cities. Although the winter months can certainly be wet and dark (the sun sets well before 5:00 p.m. in December here!), locals know that Seattle’s long, sunny summer days make it all worth it. And in fact, Seattle is among the top 20 cities with the “most ideal” climate in the United States according to a new study. The ranking comes from the Camelot Climate Index, created by Bay Area meteorologist Jan Null.
What is an “ideal climate”?
Null acknowledges that the idea of an “ideal” climate is very subjective; some might prefer year-round warmth and sun while others crave the rhythm of seasons. For the purpose of this study, Null defined an ideal climate as sunny and relatively mild, meaning there are rarely extreme weather patterns. She actually took inspiration from a 1960’s musical about King Arthur’s Camelot, which had a dry, mild, and temperate climate! The study weighed nine weather elements, such as the maximum and minimum temperatures, average annual rainfall, average percent of sunshine, average relative humidity, and so on. The data set ranges from 1981 to 2010, so the index has not accounted for weather in recent years.
Here is the full list of cities in the top 20, with Seattle in the #17 spot:
- San Diego, CA
- San Francisco, CA
- Los Angeles, CA
- Sacramento, CA
- Eureka, CA
- Las Vegas, NV
- Fresno, CA
- Redding, CA
- Galveston, TX
- Key West, FL
- Tucson, AZ
- El Paso, TX
- Yuma, AZ
- Honolulu, HI
- Kahului, HI
- Phoenix, AZ
- Seattle, WA
- Apalachicola, FL
- Cape Hatteras, NC
- Lihue, HI
Seven out of the top 10 cities are located in California, which is unsurprising given the study’s “dry, mild, and sunny” definition of an ideal climate. Although Seattle didn’t make it into the top 10, it still might surprise some people to see it ranked so high. Seattle’s climate beat out many other cities including Lihue, HI, Portland, OR, Tampa, FL, and Charlotte, NC. And you know what? When you think about it, we really are lucky to have a relatively mild climate here in the Emerald City. Most days, all you need is a light jacket.
You can see more details via the full index.