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

by David Laskin

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Natural History, Nature

215 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1997

About the author

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Great Neck, New York, I grew up hearing stories that my immigrant Jewish grandparents told about the “old country” (Russia) that they left at the turn of the last century. When I was a teenager, my mother’s parents began making yearly trips to visit our relatives in Israel, and stories about the Israeli family sifted down to me as well. What I never heard growing up was that a third branch of the family had remained behind in the old country – and that all of them perished in the Holocaust. These are three branches whose intertwined stories I tell in THE FAMILY: THREE JOURNEYS INTO THE HEART OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

An avid reader for as long as I remember, I graduated from Harvard College in 1975 with a degree in history and literature and went on to New College, Oxford, where I received an MA in English in 1977. After a brief stint in book publishing, I launched my career as a freelance writer. In recent years, I have been writing suspense-driven narrative non-fiction about the lives of people caught up in events beyond their control, be it catastrophic weather, war, or genocide. My 2004 book The Children’s Blizzard, a national bestseller, won the Washington State Book Award and the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award, and was nominated for a Quill Award. The Long Way Home (2010) also won the Washington State Book Award.

I write frequently for the New York Times Travel Section, and I have also published in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Seattle Times and Seattle Metropolitan.

When I’m not writing or traveling for research, I am usually outdoors trying to tame our large unruly garden north of Seattle, romping with our unruly Labrador retriever pup Patrick, skiing in Washington State’s Cascade Mountains, or hiking in the Wallowa Mountains of northeast Oregon. My wife, Kate O’Neill, and I have raised three wonderful daughters – all grown now and embarked on fascinating lives of their own.

Reviews

[Sharron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This part science part literary treatment of weather in the Pacific Northwest is an entertaining quick read. It's clear that Mr. Laskin understands what it means to live here as evidenced by his closing comments -

"Here in the Northwest, the weather, God knows, is rarely perfect and often downright awful. But it's real weather, "extravagant weather" as Marilynne Robinson called it, and occasionally great weather and it gives this region life and character and something to write home about. "How can you stand it?" they ask me when I go back East to visit. "Isn't it awfully wet out there?" I used to protest, reel out comparative rainfall statistics, brag about the mild winters, the long flowery springs, the low humidity of summer, the cool evenings. Now I just shrug, like a true Northwesterner. "You get used to it," I say, and change the subject."

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great (and quick) read, with chapters about our weather as seen by explorers, settlers, scientists and writers alternating with chapters focusing on each season and its, well, peculiarities. Conversational and amusing, with lots of great quotations from early sources. Although the meteorology is probably more up to date in Cliff Mass's new book, this is a good introduction not just to the region's weather but to a bit of its history as well.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting little tour through historical snippets and current analysis of PNW weather, structured by season and organized around rain in particular. Learned a bunch of interesting facts. Felt like I didn’t want it to be any longer though. Glad this book exists. Some of the content feels like it has a journalistic nature to it that may be getting dated.

[Wendi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing on two fronts. One, the analysis of the history and literature of NW weather was a bit light--it didn't help that I had read almost all of the original sources he used. Two, he complains a lot about the weather--not too surprising given that he was a recent transplant when he wrote the book. As a native Northwesterner it just felt old, he was replicating the same myths he was critiquing and challenging. Probably would be more enjoyable to someone with little knowledge of the region, but long time residents would be better served by reading Cliff Mass instead.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gives a good background on how the weather helped form and create what is now the Pacific Northwest region, but in the end it's a book about weather.

[Fangirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanting to move to the Pacific Northwest, this was an entertaining read.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting take on our weather in the PNW. We just have more "interesting" weather than weather challenged regions where there is little variety. : )

[Mary Whisner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful small book about our delightful and gloomy meteorology. The author weaves together science, history, literature (Malamud, Dillard, Robbins, Kesey, et al.), and his own journal entries.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this out loud with my parents while driving west from Michigan to Seattle. All-around great. I want to use portions of this book in a weather unit.