Fall happened in one day in Seattle, this year. Last Thursday it was 80 degrees F, with an Air Quality Index of 200 (or "harmful to most people") due to wildfires across the state. Friday it was raining and 55 degrees with an AQI of 10. The rain has continued on and off ever since, and the temps haven't gotten above 60 degrees F, and all forecasts show that we are now fully into Fall and heading into Winter. The trees are suddenly all changing colors very quickly, and leaves and falling everywhere. It's like fall landed with a big wet thump, all at once. And I love it. I love this time of year...
We are getting so much snow. If Mount Rainier National Park is open this weekend I'm going skiing on Sunday. Still plenty warm and bright east of the Cascades, too!
Seattle is on my list of places to visit. Probably the first in line for a USA trip. I suspect this time of year is exactly when I'd want to visit to maximize my "ohhh this is moody and hook it to my veins" experience. Wildfires though! Are they common in that state? New years day 2021 we in NZ woke to a sepia toned sky from the wildfires raging across Aus. The smoke crossed a small sea and freaked out a very hungover me.
Seattle is always a good place to visit. Yes, it rains a lot, but generally that means "it's raining this morning, but clears up in the afternoon, before beginning again at night", or similar on/off cadence. It's almost never just weeks of bleak and dreary. Wildfires are kinda a new thing. About 5 years ago(?) there was a big ole drought all up and down the West Coast. Lotsa stuff dried up. Lotsa stuff caught fire. And then budget cuts in forestry and COVID meant the regular fire mitigation stuff didn't happen, so there's a lot of stuff out there ready to burn. So we now have "smoke season", when the wildfires in the eastern part of the state cause major air quality issues for weeks at a time. Generally in August and September. Then the rains come and tamp everything down again, and replenish snow caps, and we are back to normal.... Ish. Climate change has been pretty sudden here, and very evident. It's like someone flipped a switch.