> For example, Austin averages 35 inches of rain per year and Houston gets 50 inches (compare to Seattle at 38 inches).
For anyone wondering why Seattle has a reputation as a rainy city when quite a few other well known US cities get comparable or more rain and no one ever thinks of them as particularly rainy, there are two main reasons.
1. Seattle rains on more days (where a day is considered as with rain if there is 0.01 mm or more of rain).
Seattle's 38 inches is spread over 156 days. Austin's 35 inches comes over 86 days. Houston's 50 inches is over 107 days.
There are cities with more total rain and more rain days, such as Buffalo (41 inches, 166 days), which brings us to reason #2.
2. Buffalo gets around 92 inches of snow a year which takes place over around 72 days. No one is bothered by a little rain on a day when you've got all that freaking snow to deal with.
Similar for most other cities that have more rain and more rain days then Seattle. They also tend to have one or more other things that are more annoying than the rain.
Seattle on the other hand mostly just has the rain.
It's funny. I actually used my umbrella a lot less in the "rainy" Seattle area than when I lived in Los Angeles or Cupertino.
I think that is because with so many rain days if you don't carry the umbrella with you all the time (except maybe summer) you are eventually going to get caught in rain--but it is almost always mild rain and you figure out you don't actually get wet enough to be annoying (with one major exception, covered below) unless you stay out in it for quite a while. You learn that if you are just doing indoor stuff where you will only be outside while walking between parking lots and buildings it is not really a problem.
When it does rain heavily it is usually for a short enough period that you can just wait it out. It will usually only take a few minutes to get light enough that a short walk won't be a problem.
The one exception is if you wear glasses. That's pretty easy to fix without resorting to an umbrella by getting a hat. The rain is usually not accompanied by much wind, so you only need a small brim to keep the rain away from your glasses.