SEATTLE — Musings from a PNW transplant, PinPoint meteorologist Robert Van Winkle
Maybe you’ll agree that it can be a challenge to transplant yourself to a completely new spot … especially after being in a place like Florida for 23 years and moving 3,500 miles away to the Pacific Northwest. Talk about a change of scenery!
If you have transplanted yourself to the Seattle area then you know that there are plenty of customs to learn and habits to adopt if you’re going to assimilate with the locals. You can make a few mistakes pronouncing the names of towns (like Sequim, Poulsbo, and Puyallup), and you can even open your umbrella on a rainy day (refer to my last story). But there is little room for error when you are doing your job on television!
Here’s a couple of on-air guffaws I made and learned from quickly:
IT’S NOT THE 405
When it comes to traffic around Seattle one simply does NOT refer to Interstate 405 as THE 405. If you have ever been to Los Angeles and done any driving at all you know that almost every road name begins with “the”. The 5, the 10, the 405, etc. But let that dear adjective slip out in Seattle as “the 405” and you’ll mark yourself an outsider for sure. Got it? Got it.
SODO, CPA, THE 12’S, SEA-TAC
Transplants may have a little trouble with some of the acronyms around Seattle but once you get it, you get it. South of Downtown and Climate Pledge Arena are easy if you just take a beat and think about it. Figuring out what a “12” is might take a bit longer. But after a quick explainer from my co-anchor at KIRO 7, I am now totally cool with being a Seahawks fan. Being a 12 is a great group to belong to; membership is free, immediate acceptance is guaranteed, and they don’t have to change the number on the flag when a transplant comes on board! Lastly, the airport is SEA-TAC. Just like all airports across the country, the 3-letter acronym is known by all: LAX, PHX, JFK, SFO and SEA. But a local will never drop off somebody at SEA. It’s Sea-Tac, thank you very much.
PSCZ
I venture to guess that not everyone knows this acronym on sight, but every local around Seattle knows of the Puget Sound Convergence Zone. The simple, and at the same time very complicated, weather feature is something I had to educate myself about quickly.
For you gentle readers who have no idea what this is, here is a brief description:
Westerly wind coming off the Pacific (usually after a frontal passage) will bend around the Olympic mountain range and converge over Puget Sound. Wind from the north and wind from the south come together to form a boundary of rising air. That’s the first step to make it rain (or snow depending on the time of year). The boundary of opposing wind usually sets up somewhere between Seattle and Everett and it can last for hours. Residents north or south of “the zone” can stay dry while potentially heavy rain or thunderstorms develop along the convergence zone. It’s a wonderful example of local weather that you won’t hear about anywhere else but in western Washington. PSCZ … now you know.
If you know of other acronyms, adjectives and slang terms that are widely known in western Washington please let me know!
I would love to hear from you before I go back on the air and stumble over another “learning moment” faux pax. Sure, it’s not the end of the world and all transplants experience a learning curve, but I want mine to be as short as possible!
Until next weekend … travel safely on 405 and watch my forecast for a heads up on the next PSCZ.
Email me at: robert.vanwinkle@kiro7.com
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