Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: November in Seattle

Friday, December 13, 2013

November in Seattle

Araucaria araucana (Monkey Puzzle Tree) on Leticia Ridge in November 2013.

Houses built in the 2000s on Leticia Ridge (with Cascadia Ridge beyond) in November 2013.

House built in the 1920s on Leticia Ridge in November 2013.

Apartments built in the 2000s in Rainier Vista East in November 2013

Houses recently completed in Rainier Vista East in November 2013

November 2013 in Seattle was significantly warmer & much drier than normal. The mean temperature was 47.9F/8.83C. The normal mean temperature is 45.4F/7.44C. Total precipitation was 3.79 inches/96.27mm. Normal precipitation is 6.57 inches/166.88mm. The highest temperature was 64F/17.78C on 11/1. The lowest 31F/-0.56C on 11/21. There was 1 day with heavy rain, 5 days with rain, 18 days with light rain, 16 days with fog (4 of them with visibility at less than 1/4 mile) 1 day with haze, 19 cloudy days, 7 partly cloudy days & 4 fair days. It was about as beautiful as November in Seattle can possibly be.

The photos above were taken within a few blocks of my new home in Rainier Vista, in the Rainier Valley. I moved into the house on November 2, 2013. By Thanksgiving Day (11/27) I had made a new garden, mostly of west coast native plants. I brought plants from the Cascadia Garden, collected more at a private campground in the Cascade Mountains & bought even more from Go Natives! Nursery in Shoreline. Trees came from NurseryTrees.com in Snohomish. Below are photos of the new garden.

Ell Alley Garden in November 2013.

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About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.