Hacker News Reader

Comment by pram | Hacker News Reader

Washington indeed has a giant desert but it's in the middle fwiw, the SERE school is in Spokane

Spokane is in the Eastern arid region of the state.

What an absolutely pointless thing to get pedantic about. Put "spokane washington" into Google images and tell me if that looks like a desert to you.

They're also wrong. The geographic center (around Ellensburg or so) is also in what is known as Eastern WA (east of the Cascades).

Spokane is Eastern Washington, the college in Cheney is literally called Eastern, its just not a desert.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Yud6EFprZeaVDaeQ6

This is the view outside of Fairchild AFB, which runs the training course in question.

Wikipedia reports that Spokane has a Mediterranean climate, as does Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province where this F-15 is reported to have been shot down.

It's sad how quickly this comment thread went from someone talking about their experience at SERE to... this.

On the contrary, as a European who only associates Washington State with the rainy Seatle I found the reality check rather enlightening.

WA has a crazy collection of microclimates. Ho oh rainforest, alpine at the various mountains, Yakima desert, mild and wet near Seattle, dry plains in the east of Cascades, etc.

Asperger’s spans the continents! It’s inspiring.

Spokane is not desert. Even surrounding territory is more plains. Some desert military training happens at Yakima much further west.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com