Mark Twain once said something like, "Everybody complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it." It seems there's always curiosity about the weather and the climate, and in Puget Sound... the RAIN! Rain it does! However, Whidbey Island has two special conditions that make our climate very unlike most of Puget Sound. First, our island, though big, is narrow - meaning that the stable temperature of waters surrounding the island create a "coastal effect". As a result the island temperatures closely follow water temperatures. Thus, it is quite "warm" on Whidbey during winter months, and quite "cool" in summer months relative to other islands and the mainland. It's why some nearby mainlanders refer to Whidbey as the "Banana Belt".

Whidbey Island is blessed with gentle weather because our narrow island has its climate influenced by the "warm" waters of Puget Sound. This phenomenon provides us cool, but seldom very cold temperatures in winter and lower rainfall than other areas of the Sound - or cities of the East Coast and West Coast! In summer these same "cool" waters reduce our temperatures 4-5 degrees compared to Seattle-Everett. Lower rainfall occurs because of the "rain shadow" effect from the Olympic Mountains that lie directly in the path of our prevailing winds. Normal southwesterly winds force wet sea air from the Pacific up and over the Olympics, creating rain forests on the "west" side of the mountains, with up to 200-inches per year. The rather dry air masses then move "downwind" directly toward Whidbey Island. As a result Whidbey is protected from moist clouds and thereby receives much less rainfall than most other areas of Western Washington. Seattle averages about 38-40 inches per year, and Everett (our near mainland city), averages 38-inches. On the Figure, above, read the "orange", just west of Coupeville, as 10 inches of precipitation, or less, "rose" as 10-20 inches, "yellow" as 20-30 inches, and "black" as 30-40 inches. It can be seen that statistically, most of Whidbey has between 15 and 25 inches of rainfall per year.

Whidbey Island's Climate