KIRO NEWSRADIO OPINION

Ross: Seattle sunny weather might be too much of a good thing

Jul 17, 2023, 7:34 AM | Updated: 10:25 am

Image: Tracy Werthman, left, and Nikoma Echt, both of West Seattle, and their kids cool off at Alki...

Tracy Werthman, left, and Nikoma Echt, both of West Seattle, and their kids cool off at Alki Beach on June 29, 2021. An excessive heat warning was in effect at the time after record-breaking temperatures hit the region in Seattle. (Photo: Jason Redmond, AFP via Getty Images)

(Photo: Jason Redmond, AFP via Getty Images)

I don’t know why anyone needs to go to Hawaii anymore. Today’s forecast in Honolulu is 82 and sunny, and we’ve had that for a week in Seattle.

Yes, the water temperature at Poipu Beach is about 30 degrees warmer than Puget Sound, but except for that, we’re living in paradise.

More from Dave Ross: We all just need to stay in our lane, if we can find it

I checked the rainfall records, the wettest day in April was .46 inches of rain on April 23, and the wettest day in May had 0.7 of an inch on May 5. The wettest day in June was June 20, when Seattle-Tacoma International Airport recorded 0.4 of an inch.

Since then, nothing. Zero.

Any moisture you felt meant you were too close to a sprinkler.

This means there is no excuse to stay indoors, no excuse to stay away from the street fairs. No excuse not to spend hours in the backyard on what is probably an unnecessary project involving salvaging your old garage door and turning it into a storage shed, which is what I felt compelled to do

But that’s what happens in weather like this, you cannot afford to waste a sunny day.

It’s exhausting. Not just physically but emotionally.

Sometimes I find myself just staring at the sky, listening to the birds, feeling the gentle breeze, and thinking, ‘How can I capture this meteorological moment so I can re-live it come November?’

And then I think, wait a minute, this is the point in the movie where the soundtrack turns ominous, and something terrible happens.

Like the temperature starts getting too high, Phoenix hit 118 degrees and expects to stay at 115 degrees or above every day this week. You could fire pottery on the sidewalk.

Of course, that’s Phoenix. The heat is the whole point. And surely the Earth understands some places like Seattle are supposed to get only so hot, and then, just in time, the rain comes, and in just the right amount.

I was clinging to that happy thought when I saw Danny Westneat’s column about Mt. Rainier being stripped naked to the point that Stevens Glacier has vanished entirely! Turns out that National Park Service pronounced Stevens Glacier missing back in 2021!

I don’t even remember that being a news headline!

So I’ve been really, really looking forward to the cool-down, which was supposed to bring some rain today. I hope it makes it to the ground.

The weather cannot be allowed to get too good because nothing ruins paradise like having too much of it.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Ross: Seattle sunny weather might be too much of a good thing