The Republican journal., 1899-12-28
The Climate OF Washington.

The Climate OF Washington
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, Dec. II, 1899.
The climate of Wash gton State is little
! understood in other States and is occa-
sionally badly represented, to use a mild
expression In order that better idea
may be obtained concerning this matter,
the writer has obtained reliable data from
the local weather bureau relative to the
different climates of the two distinct sec
lions of the State. The fact that there
are ''two sections" of the State, each with
climate for itself, may be one particular
reason why the figures are 50 frequently
mixed, as we'll as the data sought to be
promulgated. The weather observer says
''Washington has two well marked eli
matte divisions, differing more in climate
than any two adjacent States of the Union,
unless it be, perhaps, California and Ne
vada
These two climatic divisions are known
as Eastern and Western Washington.
East Of the mountains is the continental
OF dry climate. In the western part. ow-
inc tn its proximity to the Pacific ocean,
and prevailing winds from that direction,
there is what is termed a marine climate
over much of its area. This is intensified
by the projection into the land area of
that body of salt water known in its diff
ferent portions as Admiralty Inlet, Puget
Sound and Hood Canal, on, as collective
ly spoken Of. Puget Sound
The climate of western Washington is
necessarily moist to wet and uniform in
temperature-no great extremes Of heat
or cold, The average track of storms from
the North Pacific passes over the north
ern part of the State, giving it its rainy
season during the usual winter months.
1t is warm in winter far beyond what
would be expected from the latitude (46 to
40 degrees), because of these storm areas
from the ocean, and cool in summer from
the oceanic influence. Its latitude is the
same as that of France, and it's tempera-
ture much the same as that of France or
England, but its rainfall is much greater.
The bulk of the rainfall is in a well de-
fined period, from November to April, in
elusive; but no months are entirely dry,
and May, June, September and October
are often quite showery months, The av-
erage for the western section is about
80 = inches of precipitation annually, OF
which about 20 per cent. occurs in the So
called rainy period, November to April.
The heaviest rainfall is confined to the
coast counties, so to s. inches annually,
and to the extreme eastern part of those
counties whose eastern border is the Cas-
cade mountains. The Puget Sound coun-
try is also the warmest part of the west
ern division. The rainfall varies from
p l. > inches annually at Port Townsend
to - II at Olympia At Seattle it is
IS : inches, at Tacoma 43 l2. The
mean temperature of the Puget Sound
country is rs degrees to 81 degrees in va
rious parts, the vicinity of Seattle being
the warmeSt.
The highest temperature of the western
section occurs in the southern counties,
from the head of the Sound to the Column
bia river. These extremes rarely reach
100 degrees in the shade, and, if at all,
occur during June, July and August. The
lowest temperature of the western section
is found in Clallum and Whatcom coun-
ties, and only very rarely does the temper
ature descend to zero in the coolest
months in the inhabited localities.
Observations during the past ten years
show that at Seattle, which may be taken
as fair average for the Sound country,
rain or snow occurs 1852 days of the year,
distributed among the months as follows:
January IS, February 10, March IT,
April 16, May IA, June 10, July ), Aug
ust 3, September 10, October IL, Novem-
Der IS, December p.
December averages as the cloudiest
month of the year, with 4 clear, 8 partly
cloudy and u cloudy days, while August
shows the least cloudy-clear II, partly
cloudy 8, cloudy 5.
O. NJ. MOORE, Secy.
Oup C1uRRINf OFFERS The New York