moving to spokane

I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. Any comments on
Mead airport, Deer Park, or Felts field???

I'm a new pilot and I'm wondering about the weather situation
there. I live in San Joaquin Valley in California. Sunny
most of the time, except in winter (fog!!!).

Thanks

I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. Any comments on
Mead airport, Deer Park, or Felts field???

I'm a new pilot and I'm wondering about the weather situation
there. I live in San Joaquin Valley in California. Sunny
most of the time, except in winter (fog!!!).

I dunno about the airports, but it appears to me that an instrument rating
is absolutely required if you want to live in Washington.

I was just there for four days. It rained every day, with alarmingly little
warning, and with quite suddenly lowered ceilings and visibility.

(In short, the weather SUCKED.)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. Any comments on
Mead airport, Deer Park, or Felts field???

I'm a new pilot and I'm wondering about the weather situation
there. I live in San Joaquin Valley in California. Sunny
most of the time, except in winter (fog!!!).


I dunno about the airports, but it appears to me that an instrument rating
is absolutely required if you want to live in Washington.

I was just there for four days. It rained every day, with alarmingly little
warning, and with quite suddenly lowered ceilings and visibility.

(In short, the weather SUCKED.)

A quick look at a map would show that Spokane is over 200 nm east of
Seattle - well over 100 nm east of the Cascade mountains.

The climate in Spokane is much different than Seattle. Many Washington
Residents consider Western and Eastern WA to be two different states.
(Ditto Oregon)

A moments Googling found this information:


Spokane, WA Climate
* 260 Days of Sunshine a Year
Average Annual Rainfall: 17 inches
Average Annual Snowfall: 51 inches
Average Days with Snow: 73 days
Average January Temperatu 20-30F
Average July Temperatu 54-82F


Seattle, WA Climate
Average number of rainy days each year: 154
Average annual rainfall: 39 inches
Average annual snowfall: 11 inches annually
Average temperature in January: 40F
Average temperature in July: 65F


- John Ousterhout-

Clear and 88 in Seattle today, Jay, with the same expected tomorrow. No rain
and a little cooler (81) yesterday.

Bob Gardner

"John Ousterhout" wrote in
message news:AYale.6453$IC6.4343@attbi_s72...
Jay Honeck wrote:
I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. Any comments on
Mead airport, Deer Park, or Felts field???

I'm a new pilot and I'm wondering about the weather situation
there. I live in San Joaquin Valley in California. Sunny
most of the time, except in winter (fog!!!).


I dunno about the airports, but it appears to me that an instrument
rating is absolutely required if you want to live in Washington.

I was just there for four days. It rained every day, with alarmingly
little warning, and with quite suddenly lowered ceilings and visibility.

(In short, the weather SUCKED.)

A quick look at a map would show that Spokane is over 200 nm east of
Seattle - well over 100 nm east of the Cascade mountains.

The climate in Spokane is much different than Seattle. Many Washington
Residents consider Western and Eastern WA to be two different states.
(Ditto Oregon)

A moments Googling found this information:


Spokane, WA Climate
* 260 Days of Sunshine a Year
Average Annual Rainfall: 17 inches
Average Annual Snowfall: 51 inches
Average Days with Snow: 73 days
Average January Temperatu 20-30F
Average July Temperatu 54-82F


Seattle, WA Climate
Average number of rainy days each year: 154
Average annual rainfall: 39 inches
Average annual snowfall: 11 inches annually
Average temperature in January: 40F
Average temperature in July: 65F


- John Ousterhout-

Clear and 88 in Seattle today, Jay, with the same expected tomorrow. No
rain and a little cooler (81) yesterday.

Glad to hear it.

It's been clear and in the mid-70s all week. Got in a nice little dinner
flight tonight with the kids, before their baseball games...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:5Vwle.9569$PS3.867@attbi_s22...
Clear and 88 in Seattle today, Jay, with the same expected tomorrow. No
rain and a little cooler (81) yesterday.

Glad to hear it.

I'm not. 88 for folks who live here is like 110 for folks who live in
Phoenix (for example). That is, it's not unheard of and it does happen now
and then, but it's enough out of our acclimated temperature range to be VERY
uncomfortable.

I'm looking forward to the weekend, when they are saying we'll get some
clouds and cooling (little or no rain though).

Pete

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:f1ale.6364$IC6.759@attbi_s72...
I dunno about the airports, but it appears to me that an instrument rating
is absolutely required if you want to live in Washington.

I was just there for four days. It rained every day, with alarmingly
little warning, and with quite suddenly lowered ceilings and visibility.

Ahh, yes. Four days is *plenty* to learn everything you need to know about
the weather in a particular place. Never mind that you were here at the
tail end of three days in a row when we had thunderstorms; keeping in mind
that we can go YEARS without having even one thunderstorm.

In any case, as John O. points out, the climate in Spokane is radically
different than that in Seattle anyway. Eastern Washington is basically high
desert; very dry and hot in the summer, cold and snowy in the winter.
Plenty of sun all year 'round.

Pete

I'm considering moving to Spokane in a year. Any comments on
Mead airport, Deer Park, or Felts field???

I've landed at Felts a couple of times on trips to Alaska. A good
field, with a good restaurant.

Jay responded:

I dunno about the airports, but it appears to me that an instrument rating
is absolutely required if you want to live in Washington.

I respectfully disagree, unless you plan to fly into Seattle a lot in
the winter.

I was just there for four days. It rained every day, with alarmingly little
warning, and with quite suddenly lowered ceilings and visibility.

Jay, you were west of the Cascades. Spokane is east of the Cascades.
Two different worlds.

Moist air comes in from the Pacific, rises, cools, and it rains.
After going over the Cascades, it descends into eastern Washington,
where Spokane is located; it warms, and the sun shines.

Eastern Washington is quite arid. I'm not claiming it's never cloudy
at Spokane, but the wx there is totally different than in the Seattle
area.

Actually, even Seattle is not all that cloudy in summer. You are
generalizing from a sample of four days. I lived there only one
spring and summer, still a small sample. But we had far more sunshine
between March 1 and Labor Day, 1969, than clouds; and had to water
the flowers occasionally. Pretty much like the wx here in central PA.

vince norris

Jay, you were west of the Cascades. Spokane is east of the Cascades.
Two different worlds.

Ah, good point. That's one of the real down-sides of airline (versus
private) travel -- you have no "sense of place." I literally stepped onto
a plane in Chicago, and stepped off in Seattle, without the slightest regard
to geography or distance.

I could have been in Argentina, for all it mattered.

I was just there for four days. It rained every day, with alarmingly
little
warning, and with quite suddenly lowered ceilings and visibility.


Moist air comes in from the Pacific, rises, cools, and it rains.

It was amazing. We were downtown at the aquarium, and we were able to watch
the rain squalls rolling in across the bay (or, rather "sound") every few
minutes. In between, it would be sunny and semi-nice out.

Nor surprisingly, it looked EXACTLY like the Weather Channel depictions of
Seattle, with bands of precip rolling across the state.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:qZjle.9845$IC6.9583@attbi_s72...
It was amazing. We were downtown at the aquarium, and we were able to
watch the rain squalls rolling in across the bay (or, rather "sound")
every few minutes. In between, it would be sunny and semi-nice out.

Actually, you were just fine with "bay". As in, Elliott Bay.

The Puget Sound is the entire large area of water, up to but not including
the Strait of Juan de Fuca. You can't see the whole sound from the Seattle
waterfront (or from any waterfront).

Elliott Bay, on the other hand, is the smaller area of water immediately
adjacent to Seattle.

"Across the Sound" wouldn't be terribly wrong, really...but "Bay" is more
accurate from that vantage point, and certainly not in error.

Nor surprisingly, it looked EXACTLY like the Weather Channel depictions of
Seattle, with bands of precip rolling across the state.

Which isn't what rain around here usually looks like, actually. In our
regular "rainy season" we usually just get heavy stratus clouds dumping
precipitation everywhere. The main exception would be the "convergence
zone" where the air mass having been split by the Olympic Mountains
reconverges, causing uplifting. It is often rainier and more turbulent
where the convergence zone happens to be that day (it can wander north or
south by quite a bit, depending on the prevailing wind direction).

Of course, rain is never really that simple, but the generalities hold
pretty well. The main thing to keep in mind is that the weather you saw
when you were here is hardly typical, even for Seattle.

Pete