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Seattle is a coastal
port city and the largest city in the Pacific Northwest
region of the United States. It is located in the state
of Washington between an arm of the Pacific Ocean called
Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 96 miles (154
km) south of the Canada – United States border
in King County, of which it is the county seat.
The Seattle area has been inhabited
for at least 4,000 years,but European settlement
began only in the mid-19th century. The first permanent
white settlers—Arthur
A. Denny and those subsequently known as the Denny party—arrived
November 13, 1851. Early settlements in the area were
called "New York-Alki" ("Alki" meaning "by
and by" in the local Chinook Jargon) and "Duwamps".
In 1853, Doc Maynard suggested that the main settlement
be renamed "Seattle," an anglicized rendition
of the name of Sealth, the chief of the two local tribes.
In 2006, the city had an estimated population of 582,174
and an estimated metropolitan area population of approximately
3.3 million. Seattle is the hub and largest city of
the Seattle metropolitan area, often called Puget Sound,
which also includes Tacoma, Bellevue, and Everett. From
1869 until 1982, Seattle was known as the "Queen
City". Seattle's current official nickname is
the "Emerald City," the result of a contest
held in the early 1980s; the reference is to the lush
evergreen trees in the surrounding area. Seattle is also
referred to informally as the "Gateway to Alaska," "Rain
City" (although stolen from Vancouver), "Coffee
Town", and "Jet City," the latter from
the local influence of Boeing. Seattle residents are
known as Seattleites.
Seattle is the birthplace of grunge music,and
has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption;coffee
companies founded or based in Seattle include Starbucks,Seattle's
Best Coffee,and Tully's. There are also many successful
independent artisanal espresso roasters and cafes. Researchers
at Central Connecticut State University ranked Seattle
the most literate city of America's sixty-nine largest
cities in 2005 and 2006 and second most literate in 2007.
Moreover, analysis conducted in 2004 by the United States
Census Bureau of 2002 survey data indicated that Seattle
was the most educated large city in the U.S. with 48.8
percent of residents 25 and older having at least bachelor
degrees. Based on per capita income, in 2006 the
Seattle metropolitan area ranked 17th out of 363 metropolitan
areas in a study by the Census Bureau.
Seattle was the site of the 1999 meeting
of the World Trade Organization, and the attendant demonstrations
by anti-globalization activists. The city is also home
to the Pride Foundation, which became the best-funded
rights organization in the US when Ric Weiland,
one of the first five Microsoft employees, bequeathed
$65 million to the foundation as well as ten other organizations.
Climate
Seattle averages only 58 clear days a year, with most
of those days occurring between June and September]Seattle's
mild climate is usually classified as Marine west coast
However, its wet-winter/dry-summer pattern
shows some characteristics of a Mediterranean climate,
and it is sometimes classified this way.Temperature
extremes are moderated by adjacent Puget Sound, the greater
Pacific Ocean, and Lake Washington. The region is partially
protected from Pacific storms by the Olympic Mountains
and from Arctic air by the Cascade Range. Despite being
on the margin of the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains,
the city has a reputation for frequent rain. Despite
its relatively frequent rainfall, the so-called "rainy
city" receives a smaller quantity of actual precipitation
annually, at 37.1 inches (94 cm)], than New York City,
Atlanta, Houston, and most cities of the Eastern Seaboard
of the United States. Seattle's reputation for rain derives
from this frequency of precipitation as well as the fact
that it is cloudy an average of 226 days per year (cf.
132 in New York City). Most of the precipitation
falls as drizzle or light rain, with only occasional
downpours. Spring, late fall, and winter are filled with
days when it does not rain but looks as if it might because
of cloudy, overcast skies. As for temperature, winters
are cool and wet with average lows around 35–40 °F
(2–4 °C) on winter nights. Colder weather can
occur, but seldom lasts more than a few days. Summers
are dry and warm, with average daytime highs around 73–80 °F
(22.2–26.7 °C). Hotter weather usually occurs
only during a few summer days. Seattle's hottest official
recorded temperature was 100 °F (37.8 °C) on
July 20, 1994; the coldest recorded temperature was 0 °F
(-18 °C) on January 31, 1950.
Between October and May, it is cloudy or partly cloudy
six out of every seven days Eighty miles (130 km)
to the west, the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National
Park on the western flank of the Olympic Mountains
receives an annual average rainfall of 142 inches (361
cm), and the state capital, Olympia—south of
the rain shadow—receives an annual average rainfall
of 52 inches (132 cm). Snowfall is very infrequent,
especially at lower altitudes and near the coast, and
is usually light and fleeting, lasting only a few days.
Average annual snowfall, as measured at Sea–Tac
Airport, is 13 inches (33 cm). Seattle's record
snowfall was 20 inches (51 cm) on January 13, 1950.
Sunnier and drier "California weather" typically
dominates from mid-July to mid-September. An average
of 0.8 inches (2.0 cm) of rain falls in July and 1.0
inch (2.5 cm) in August. Although the summer climate
is considerably drier and less humid than in areas
with humid continental climates, a slight dampness
can be occasionally felt, usually when temperatures
reach above 80 °F (26.7 °C). This dampness
is typically more noticeable during the evening when
the temperatures have dropped. Because of this, Seattle
experiences occasional summer thunderstorms.
The Puget Sound Convergence Zone is an
important feature of Seattle's weather. In the convergence
zone, air arriving from the north meets air flowing in
from the south. Both streams of air originate over the
Pacific Ocean; airflow is split by the Olympic Mountains
to Seattle's west, then reunited by the Cascade Mountains
to the east. When the air currents meet, they are forced
upward, resulting in convection.
Thunderstorms caused by this activity
can occur north and south of town, but Seattle itself
rarely receives worse weather than occasional thunder
and ice-pellet showers. Nonetheless, the Hanukkah Eve
Wind Storm in December 2006 brought heavy rain and winds
gusting up to 69 mph (111 km/h). One Seattleite drowned
in her collapsed and flooded basement; power failures
were widespread, with some left without power for up
to eleven days.
An exception to Seattle's dampness
often occurs in El Niño years, when the marine
weather systems track as far south as California and
little precipitation falls in the Puget Sound area.
Since the region's water comes from mountain snowpacks
during the drier summer months, El Niño winters
can not only produce substandard skiing but can.
Demographics
In the census of 2000, there were 563,374
people in Seattle. In the interim measurements of 2006,
there were 582,454 people, 258,499 households, and 113,400
families residing in Seattle. The racial makeup of the
city was 67.1 percent White, 16.6 percent Asian, 9.7
percent African American, 2.38 percent from other races,
1.00 percent Native American, 0.50 percent Pacific Islander,
and 4.46 percent from two or more races. Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 6.3 percent of the population.
11.3% were of German, 9.1% Irish, 8.1% English and 5.0%
Norwegian ancestry according to Census 2000. 80.1% spoke
English, 4.2% Spanish, 2.3% Chinese or Mandarin, 2.0%
Tagalog and 1.9% Vietnamese as their first language.
Seattle has seen a major increase in legal and illegal
immigration in recent decades. The foreign-born population
increased 40 percent between the 1990 and 2000 censuses.
As of 1999, the median income for a household
in the city is $45,736 and the median income for a family
is $62,195. Males have a median income of $40,929 versus
$35,134 for females. The per capita income for the city
is $30,306 11.8 percent of the population and 6.9
percent of families are below the poverty line. Out of
the total people living in poverty, 13.8 percent are
under the age of 18 and 10.2 percent are 65 or older..
It is estimated that King County
has 8,000 homeless on any given night, and many of
those live in Seattle. In September 2005, King
County adopted a "Ten-Year
Plan to End Homelessness", one of the near-term
results of which is a shift of funding from homeless
shelter beds to permanent housing.
In 2006, after growing by 4,000 citizens
per year for the previous 16 years, regional planners
expect the population of Seattle to grow by 200,000 people
by 2040. However, Mayor Nickels supports plans that
would increase the population by 60 percent, or 350,000
people, by 2040 and is working on ways to accommodate
this growth while keeping Seattle's single-family housing
zoning laws.[153] The Seattle City Council later voted
to relax height limits on buildings in the greater part
of Downtown, partly with the aim of increasing residential
density in the city center.
A 2006 study by UCLA suggests that Seattle
has one of the highest populations per capita. With
12.9% of citizens polled identifying as gay, lesbian,
or bisexual, the city ranks 2nd of all major US cities
behind San Francisco and slightly ahead of Atlanta. The
Seattle metropolitan area also ranks 2nd of all major
metropolitan areas
According to the 2000 US census, revised
in 2004, Seattle has the 5th highest proportion of single-person
households nationwide among cities of 100,000 or more
residents, at 40.8 per cent.
In 2005, Men's Fitness magazine named
Seattle the fittest city in the United States.
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