The national stereotype of Seattle is that it rains all the time here, that it rains all day most days and when it's not raining, it's cloudy. We've been here for part of winter and spring but so far have not found that to be the case. It does rain most days, but it's more of a sprinkle than a rain and it's for only about an hour or so. It has rained heavily a few times and we might have seen a couple days where it was rainy all day. However, we've seen the sky almost every day and most days the sun has come out for several hours.

An average day starts out with some light rain in the morning, which is nothing like the heavy thunderstorms in Texas - there's no thunder, and the rain usually barely requires an umbrella. After the rain, it's cloudy for a couple more hours. Then, around lunch time the clouds start dissipating and for most of the afternoon it's fairly sunny. Actually, this pattern has seemed fairly consistent lately, which means that - just like during summer in Texas - I don't have to pay attention to the weather forecast because I know what to expect the next day, but it also means that - much unlike the summer in Texas - it stays pretty nice outside and I can enjoy the outdoors. As we get closer to summer, we're seeing less rain and more sun.

Don't tell anyone I told you all this, though, because I think the locals here like to play up the image that it rains a lot here to keep too many people from moving here. It works, I guess, because a couple people at work always ask me if it's raining and before we moved, one of Lesley's coworkers at her job in Dallas said that she couldn't live in Seattle unless she was taking anti-depressants. Still, I'd have to say that overall the level of rain has been great, enough to keep things clean and green but there's been plenty of sunshine to enjoy.

We've taken several pictures of the rain from our apartment and you can see a few below: