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Weather Marathoners · Street Smart Naturalist

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Greetings.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is David B.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Williams and the podcast of my newsletter,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Street Smart Naturalist,
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  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Every week,
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  I share my observations and adventures with the human and
• 0:13
  natural world around
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  SPEAKER_00: Seattle,
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  SPEAKER_00: Puget Sound,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Pacific Northwest.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode highlights our lovely autumn, winter, and spring weather.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about my work, please go to my website, geologywriter.com.
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  SPEAKER_00: You will also find a link to my Substack newsletter,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: and my previous four and a half years of newsletters,
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: as well as images tied to this week's episode.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining me on this adventure,
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: and welcome to Podcast 49 of the Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Weather Marathoners,
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  SPEAKER_00: November 6,
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  SPEAKER_00: 2025.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the August 24,
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  SPEAKER_00: 1897 Hartford Courant,
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  SPEAKER_00: the editorial contained an infamous line,
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  SPEAKER_00: Everybody talks about the weather,
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  SPEAKER_00: but nobody does anything about it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Often attributed to Mark Twain,
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: the true author was Charles Dudley Warner,
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  SPEAKER_00: editor,
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  SPEAKER_00: author,
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  SPEAKER_00: and co-collaborator with Twain on The Gilded Age.
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  SPEAKER_00: What was true over 100 years ago is still true today.
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  SPEAKER_00: Everybody talks about the weather.
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  SPEAKER_00: We all experience it.
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  SPEAKER_00: We all have an opinion on it.
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  SPEAKER_00: We all complain about it.
• 1:20
  Sadly,
• 1:21
  few aspects of natural history are daily topics for
• 1:23
  non-scientists except the weather.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Weather is the liquor of conversation,
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  SPEAKER_00: giving people something to say,
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  SPEAKER_00: a way to relate to the person they're speaking with,
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  SPEAKER_00: whether they know them or not.
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  As early 20th century Indiana humorist Ken Hubbard once
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  remarked about the weather,
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  nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it
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  didn't change once in
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  SPEAKER_00: a while.
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  SPEAKER_00: Plus,
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  SPEAKER_00: at least around here in my fair city of Seattle,
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  SPEAKER_00: many people also try to make some excuse about our weather.
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  SPEAKER_00: In a landmark 1974 paper,
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  SPEAKER_00: Philip Church,
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  former chair of the University of Washington Department of
• 2:00
  Atmospheric Sciences,
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  SPEAKER_00: made a valiant attempt.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Titled,
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  SPEAKER_00: Some Precipitation Characteristics of Seattle,
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  SPEAKER_00: the paper could have been subtitled,
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  A Noble Effort to Use Numbers to Point Out to the World that
• 2:11
  Weather Here is Better
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  SPEAKER_00: Than You Might Think.
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  SPEAKER_00: Numbers were Church's forte.
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  SPEAKER_00: He looked at annual and monthly amounts,
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  SPEAKER_00: as well as hourly records,
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  SPEAKER_00: which Noah began to record in October 1948.
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  SPEAKER_00: From the hourly data,
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  SPEAKER_00: Church derived a table of intensity,
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  SPEAKER_00: which he broke into six categories,
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  SPEAKER_00: light drizzle,
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  SPEAKER_00: moderate drizzle,
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  SPEAKER_00: heavy drizzle,
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  SPEAKER_00: light rain,
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  SPEAKER_00: moderate rain,
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  SPEAKER_00: and heavy rain.
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  The three drizzle levels accounted for 72.5% of the
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  precipitation with light
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  SPEAKER_00: drizzle falling over half that time.
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  SPEAKER_00: Church concluded with a statement that would make any gadfly proud.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because of the preponderance of drizzle intensities,
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  SPEAKER_00: one might truthfully say that it rarely rains in Seattle,
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: unquote.
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  SPEAKER_00: Although scientists may attempt to debunk our weather,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I and many other locals may joke about it,
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  SPEAKER_00: we do not appreciate others denigrating our soggy climate.
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  SPEAKER_00: When pushed,
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  SPEAKER_00: which usually only requires a simple slide,
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  we immediately rattle off the one vital weather statistic
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  taught to every child in
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  SPEAKER_00: Seattle schools,
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  SPEAKER_00: worshipped by members of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce,
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  SPEAKER_00: and inscribed on the city seal.
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  SPEAKER_00: Seattle gets less rain than New York.
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  SPEAKER_00: End of discussion.
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  SPEAKER_00: What else needs to be said?
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  That comparison became so ingrained in our character that in
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  his 1972 History of
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  SPEAKER_00: Seattle,
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  longtime resident Nard Jones opened his section on weather with
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  an apocryphal count
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  SPEAKER_00: of how locals earn a few bucks with this statistic.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jones wrote, generally the routine works in this way.
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  SPEAKER_00: Local goes to bar, man sits next to him.
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  SPEAKER_00: Local,
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  SPEAKER_00: being the typically friendly satellite,
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  SPEAKER_00: starts the conversation,
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  SPEAKER_00: slowly turning it toward weather.
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  SPEAKER_00: Local mentions a forest mentioned statistic, man guffaws.
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  SPEAKER_00: Local asks if man wants to make a wager.
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  Sucker agrees,
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  local calls weather bureau,
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  man asks question and learns the truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Man shells out for next glass of small batch locally distilled whiskey.
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  SPEAKER_00: I don't know when I first learned this fact,
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  but I do have memories of citing it to friends in college who
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  derided my hometown's
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  SPEAKER_00: infamous weather.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it rains in Seattle, but you should see New York.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or what about New Orleans or Miami?
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  SPEAKER_00: Each with more than 60 inches.
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  These were dens of soggy iniquity compared to our practically
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  arid 39 inches or so.
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  SPEAKER_00: Like many satellites,
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  SPEAKER_00: I knew that drippy dreariness was our image,
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  SPEAKER_00: but I wanted to show that it really wasn't so bad.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hey, we're nice folks up here, and people shouldn't poke fun at us.
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  SPEAKER_00: Being an honest sort, I did not make any bets myself.
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  Even those who admit that Seattle can be wet and cloudy turn
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  this toward an advantage.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our mild maritime climate translates to good growing conditions,
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  SPEAKER_00: healthy skin,
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  SPEAKER_00: less mental strength,
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  SPEAKER_00: and one more reason to drink coffee.
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  A 1924 pamphlet distributed by the Chamber of Commerce labeled
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  the weather filtered
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  sunshine and described how it is best for all and vital to the
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  development of the
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  SPEAKER_00: most energetic peoples,
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  SPEAKER_00: unquote.
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  SPEAKER_00: Others,
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  SPEAKER_00: such as Archibald Menzies,
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  SPEAKER_00: botanist on George Vancouver's 1792 exploration of Puget Sound,
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  SPEAKER_00: simply summed up the local weather as salubrious.
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  SPEAKER_00: Some people might think of Seattleites as weather wimps.
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  Those big meanies laugh when the National Weather Service
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  office holds a press
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  SPEAKER_00: conference to announce the potential for a storm
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  SPEAKER_00: They may drop an entire inch of snow here.
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  They chide us when the media devotes columns of text and
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  minutes of airtime to a
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  SPEAKER_00: record-breaking heat wave of 90-degree days.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sure,
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  we may not have temperatures that require an investment in a
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  small farm's worth of
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  SPEAKER_00: warm clothes or our own ice-making machines,
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  SPEAKER_00: but we do have weather that many so-called weather studs cannot handle.
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  SPEAKER_00: Monotonous gray, sprinkly, dark, and dank.
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  SPEAKER_00: I would ask these hardy folks,
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  SPEAKER_00: if we're such wimps,
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  then why do you always paint a picture of how bad our weather
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  is and wonder how
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  SPEAKER_00: anyone can live here?
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  SPEAKER_00: They think they are tough because they experience extremes.
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  SPEAKER_00: But how many of them have a medical condition,
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  SPEAKER_00: seasonal affective disorder,
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  SPEAKER_00: named for an entire season of gray,
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  SPEAKER_00: overcast,
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  SPEAKER_00: moisture-rich,
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  SPEAKER_00: low-light days?
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  I wonder how many of them could survive a winter where it
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  rained 90 out of 120 days.
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  SPEAKER_00: or spring temperatures that persist into July.
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  They are merely weather sprinters having to survive a few days
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  of minus 30 degree
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  SPEAKER_00: temperatures,
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  SPEAKER_00: storms that drop two feet of snow,
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  SPEAKER_00: or a week of 110 degree plus weather.
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  We are the weather marathoners,
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  enduring months of rain and weeks when the sun is only a rumor.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are the tough ones.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Once again,
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Williams,
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  author and voice of the Seattle Street Smart Naturalist
• 6:51
  Explorations of the Urban
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Kind,
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  a weekly newsletter and podcast focusing on the human and
• 6:55
  natural world around
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Seattle,
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Puget Sound,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Pacific Northwest.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more details about my books,
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Walks and Tonks,
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: and a link to sign up for my newsletter and podcast,
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: check out my website,
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: geologywriter.com.
• 7:09
  And don't forget to slow down,
• 7:10
  pay attention,
• 7:11
  and enjoy the world around you.