When most people think of the Pacific Northwest and Western Washington, they think of rain. On Lopez Island and the rest of the San Juans, it is somewhat of a different story. Lopez actually gets about 247 days of sun a year.

The saltwater temperature around Lopez Island averages about 42 degrees in the winter and 52 degrees in the summer. Lopez only gets close to about half as much rain as Seattle does, mostly because the Olympics and Vancouver Island push most winds up into cooler air and force them to dump their rain at a higher elevation, but don't let that fool you, October through April can be very cold and wet.

The weather is usually moderate. Temperatures can sometimes reach 80 degrees in the summer and will fall below 30 degrees in the winter. Occasionally, Between December and January, there may be a little dusting of snow, but don't worry, it is nothing that common or serious.

In the dry summer months and during September and early October, the islands can go for weeks without a cloud in the sky. The Rainfall in the islands averages 29 inches a year. Floods, high humidity, blizzards, extreme heat or cold and other natural disasters are not heard of on Lopez.

The highest temperature ever reached on Lopez is 93 degrees (July 1941) and the lowest is 8 degrees (January 1950).