Rains All the Time: A Connoisseur's History of Weather in the Pacific Northwest

Everyone talks about the weather, but not like northwesterners. In Rains All the Time, however, it soon becomes clear that the pat image of a perpetually soggy Pacific Northwest is a gross oversimplification. David Laskin points out that, despite the time-honored Seattle and Portland tradition of rain-bashing, these two cities get less rain on average than New York City, and regions east of the Cascade mountains never get enough. Yet, regardless of actual precipitation, rain remains the region's symbol, its favorite joke, and reliable scapegoat. Laskin says that northwesterners are connoisseurs of weather, and deserve a book devoted to its historic, literary, biologic, and cultural impact. He delves into the climatic complexity of the region (from rain forest to desert), and the complexity of its denizens (from boasters to whiners). If you can't escape the wet, you might as well wallow in it.