By Golly, The PNW is Awesome! And Here’s Why – Part 1: Weather

I’m a bit of an odd duck. My family is from central Michigan, I was born in Massachusetts, then raised a bit back in small town Michigan. But my hometown is Chickasha, OK, where I truly grew up from 2nd grade on. Since graduating from college my wife and I have moved out to Seattle and back to Oklahoma twice before we ended up Bellingham, WA. Back in the Pacific Northwest. And we plan on staying this time, the third time’s the charmThis post about the first reason why I love it here: The Weather!Yes, it does rain in the PNW, but only for part of the year. In Bellingham it is surprisingly sunny for most of the year. The winter is cold, occasionally windy, and rainy but is much more palatable than temps consistently below freezing with blasting winds and freezing rain back and Oklahoma.Once you survive the rains and move into the summer, the temps here rarely go above 90 degrees. Most places don’t even have air conditioning, which is a requirement in Oklahoma. Those weeks mid summer when the temps reach above 85 are a bit rough, but that’s when you live with fans on full blast.Also during the summer, all of the snow melts from the trails up in the Cascade mountains. Oklahoma does have a mountain range down by Lawton, but the Cascades are more grand. Mt. Baker, and active volcano which can be seen from anywhere in the region, has 13 named glaciers descending its slopes, and many of the local trails roam its lower levels. My favorite three trails all climb part of the way up this massive mountain. But I will save my talk of hiking for another post…