Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

The article is specifically targeting people in the Pacific Northwest (presumably of the US, though parts of PNW include parts of Canada). The US is prone to thinking 'You go outside in nice weather" and this article is aimed at rebutting that notion and explicitly saying "You can enjoy the great outdoors in any kind of weather."

I live in a small town in Washington. Not long after I moved here, I saw a video that listed this town as one of the ten worst cities to live in for Washington state. It listed high unemployment, high drug use and the big zinger was fewest sunny days.

I hear all kinds of trash talk about the weather out here which both amuses and aggravates me because I moved here for the very temperate weather. I live without a car and it rarely gets below freezing here and it rarely gets all that hot. It rains a lot and I wish there were more awnings in the downtown area, but the rain tends to be light, so I don't care that much. I grew up in Georgia which has terrible, terrible storms on a regular basis.

The article also explicitly states that Seattle has "deep Scandinavian roots." So it is trying to appeal to locals in a way that they should be able to readily identify with and embrace.

This is not a generic article. It is very much a localized article with a particular audience and time and place in mind. And for that reason, the references make a lot of sense.

Indeed. As someone who lives in Seattle I believe that being able to be out walking and biking year round is one of the best reasons for being here. The weather west of the Cascades is quite temperate - so with some basic gear from Costco or Goodwill (or REI or Patagonia if you want, but it's not necessary) you can go to town pretty much any day (or night) of the year except for rare snow storms and the like. And during Covid, that getting out and about has really helped maintain a positive outlook in this crazy time. Highly recommend it to other NWesterners.

Ya, I moved to Sammamish, WA from the SF Bay Area, and people make too big of a deal about Washington rain. Ya it rains, but its a normal 4 season type of thing. Rain most of winter with some snow for like 2 weeks. Light showers mixed with sun in the spring. Pretty warm and sunny during the summer but not hot, then light rains and winds in the fall. People made it out and warned me about "Washington Rain" like it was going to be raining 360 days out of the year at torrential levels, with grey/dark skys and the apocalypse. Most of the time the rain is super light and gentle with no wind, and the sky is white if not broken up with blue sky

shh, don’t tell people the secret! :-)

There is a saying in Norwegian for this:

Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær

It translates to "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing" :)

The article dives into exactly that quite a bit.

And it's not some mantra or "special thing" really - just get dressed so that you're not wet or cold and you can enjoy the environment no matter what the weather is.

Warm gloves, waterproof boots/shoes, warm upper body clothes primarily. That's it. I find it nicer to focus on layers on the upper body since it's easier to add/remove according to activity etc, than lower body, and it'll affect the lower body temps more than warming the lower body will affect the upper body.

That's certainly true. Although some people who are either from or have gotten used to places where the weather is mostly sunny and temperate year round (like a lot of California) really can't imagine having to live somewhere with a lot of clouds and rain (even light) much less heavy snowfalls in the winter.

Alternatively "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad kleather"

https://youtu.be/ua1FAlHt_Ys?t=232

And the same in Danish and AFAIK Swedish. I wonder where it originated or if it's one of those separate, but parallel occurences.

Yep, same in Sweden.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com