Friday open thread: Should we talk about the weather?

Hi there! It’s Friday, which means it’s open thread day. Today, I want to talk about the weather. I live in, and have spent most of my life living in, the Pacific Northwest. One of the things I love about the west side of both Oregon and Washington is how mild the weather is, comparatively. The whole time I was growing up, in both Seattle and Portland, summers were reliably in the low-to-mid 80’s most of the time, and in Portland we’d generally get a week or so in mid-August that it’d spike into the low 90’s, we’d all be miserable for four days, then we’d go back to living in a relative climate paradise.

Fast forward to this summer. We had our first 90+ heat wave in May, we had two more in June, and we are currently in our about 10th straight day of 95-degree temps with no cooldown in sight until next weekend. This, to be frank, sucks ass.

So bear with me, people, because I’m about to bitch about the heat. I’m done with it. I love summer; I like the sun, I like wearing shorts, and I generally prefer being warm to being cold. But this, friends, is ridiculous - this weather isn’t what I signed up for by living in the NW, and we still have August, and its inevitable fire smoke blowing in on top of the heat, to go. It’s going to be a long month.

I know there are areas of the country that laugh at that sort of heat - when I was in Atlanta in late June, it was 100 and raining all weekend, when I lived in Connecticut, summer days were routinely 85 degrees and about 70% humidity, and my family lives in Tucson - but one of the things I love about the NW is that it doesn’t, or at least didn’t, get that hot here. Ever.

What’s it like right now where you live? Are you happy with it, or do you want it to end and become something else? If so, what else? Do you want to live where it’s always winter, or are you OK with the occasional spike into ridiculousness, heat-wise?

Also: What’s your favorite kind of weather? I like a good windstorm. I also, since we don’t get that many of them here, enjoy a good dumping of snow.

What else is going on? Any big plans for the weekend?