September 7, 2021 by Maggie McNeill
One of the really nice things about living on the Pacific side of the Olympic peninsula is that it's nearly always cooler than the rest of the state, except in winter (when it's usually milder). In Oklahoma, there was about a 50 oC range between typical summer highs and typical winter lows; at Sunset, the range is only about 30 oC. During that awful heat wave at the end of June, we were a few degrees cooler than Seattle and were out of it almost two days earlier, and when I drive home it's not unusual to feel perfectly comfortable in shirtsleeves in Seattle, only to feel distinctly chilly when I get out of the car at Sunset. And virtually as soon as the Dog Days were over two weeks ago, the temperature dropped so much I closed my office window, which has been open since early June. At the moment I'm writing this, my weather app shows a 6 oC difference between Seattle and Sunset, and that's not especially unusual. So it's beginning to feel a bit autumnal here already, and a few days ago I actually wore a sweater one day; in two more weeks the autumn will arrive in earnest, and not a day too soon for me.
