Weather and Driving

2 more things that separate Seattle from the Bay Area. I'll start with the weather:

1) The high temps in the Seattle area do not generally kick in until about 5pm during summer time. I find this to be pleasant, as it's really good for me cause I'm not a morning person. =P I have noticed that at the moment it is close to noon as I write this and it's 64F. We are expected to have a high of 74 today and given yesterday's warm temps this is highly possible. It likely will not climb to the 70's until maybe 2 or 3pm.

In the SF Bay Area we typically got the high temps a bit past noon, that is, around 2pm. During summer time it might occur a little later, but generally the high temps didn't kick in until much past noon.

On my last excursion to Vancouver, Canada the high temps kicked in around 6pm. This was only a few days ago. Vancouver is a bit further north than Seattle and they get more sunlight than we do at this time of year. Their official sunset time is 11 minutes later than hours.

During winter times the high temps will kick in around 3p to 4p which makes sense, given the fact that it gets dark around 5p and it won't (and can't get) warm if there's no sunlight. The official sunset time today will be 9:09pm whereas in SF it's 8:35p which is a huge difference. In Vancouver, it's 9:20pm!

I have also noticed that it stays light later (dusk) than in SF. The sky will still be light past 9:30p tonite, whereas in SF it's already dark by 9p. During winter time it's not too much different. I think SF might get more light during the day, but I don't think it's appreciably more. I can't wait to see this winter.

2) As far as driving goes, people in Seattle area (maybe the entire Pacific Northwest?) do not like to use cruise control. Every time I drive on freeway and it's late at night (past midnight) I am in cruise control because traffic is very light. I'll come up on someone and right when I am about to pass, they speed up and won't let me pass. It's very annoying.

People here like to pace you as well (travel at same speed). In SF Bay Area, this is the only thing they do better than here in Seattle. People generally will not pace you in Bay Area and will speed up or slow down so they will not be riding side by side with you (which is potentially dangerous).

People generally travel at a slower rate of speed than in Bay Area. Of course some people drive crazy but it's a far more laid back experience. When there is traffic jam, it's not a big deal. People are so nice around here, if you need to move from lane to lane they will let you in. In SF, they won't let you in the lane and you have to suffer for potentially a long time until someone lets you go where you want.