Seattle is known for its perpetual rainy season, and for the most part lives up to the reputation. The climate is considered to be Marine West Coast, meaning that for the majority of the year its damp and cloudy, and the summers are sunny and dry. For Seattle there's actually a window of about ten to thirty days during the summer that rain doesn't fall or cloud cover doesn't exist. The city receives an average of 36.2 inches of rainfall annually. To help put that into perspective, San Francisco is the recipient of an average 19.5 inches per year. What maintains Seattle gloomy image is not the amount of rain, though, but rather its regularity. Constant cloud cover and drizzle is what a person should expect if visiting The Emerald City.
But enough about the rain! Seattle is situated between Lake Washington to the east and Puget Sound to the west. Elliot Bay is the city's main harbor, and is an inlet to Puget Sound. More than a 100 million geoducks (below) can be found in the sediments of the Sound. Also known as "king clams," geoducks are considered to be a delicacy in many Asian countries. Orcas and salmon are also quite common throughout the Sound.
Seattle lies on what is commonly known to be seven hills: Capital Hill, First Hill, West Seattle, Beacon Hill, Queen Anne, Magnolia, and Denny Hill. Also, being in the Pacific Ring of Fire the city is considered major earthquake zone. The largest earthquake to occur in the area was on January 26, 1700 and is estimated to have been a 9 in magnitude. The city lies on both the Seattle fault and the Cascadia subduction zone, and latter is capable of producing a earthquake larger than 9.0 if a rupture occurs. Quite a scary thought, especially when one reflects on the current disasters in Haiti and Chile.
references:
http://www.seattleattractions.com/climate.html
http://www.gonorthwest.com/Washington/Seattle/weather.htm
http://www.pugetsoundstartshere.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle
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