Im from Washington, I would study the geography of the area if youre interested in this state. Eastern Washington is a significantly dryer climate, hot summers, frigid winters and flowing plains and low hills. The middle seasons are typically mild with a decent amount of rain either in Spring or Fall.

Western Washington is considerably cooler, quite a bit more humid (though any East Coaster will tell you this is nothing and theyre probably right.) You will have year round rainfall, it is mostly light rain with occasional heavy rain and plenty of overcast days. The extreme seasons of Summer and Winter are fairly mild and snow is not nearly as common.

As far as natural disasters the state has increasingly suffered from severe fires that are rampant from July to September. Otherwise occasional flooding is a possibility on either side of the state. And rarely blizzard level events will hit the eastern side, though that is often relegated to the foothills of central Washington and the northern parts but not always. Thunderstorms, wind storms and dust storms are all major possibilities on the eastern side. We have seen wind storms in excess of 70+ MPH due to the rolling hills the region is known for.

As far as settlement goes, the more eastward in the state the more like Idaho it becomes rather quickly. On the eastern side of the cascades, key areas i would consider anything remotely friendly to us would be town’s and cities like Spokane, Cheney, Pullman. That doesn’t mean you are fully safe, northern Idaho (Coeur d’Alene area) has a history of white supremacy settlements. Pullman is a small sea of blue in an ocean of red and Moscow next door is home to a cult.

Avoid the larger central Washington cities typically. The Tri Cities (Pasco, Kennewick, Richland) and Yakima are some of the worst in terms of crime.

The west side is considered safer for anyone that is generally a liberal and left of that is also generally more welcome. Cost of living is significantly higher compared to the eastern side but economic development is far greater, more jobs, more places to go and talk with different communities. As with any large city in the US, crime has a tendency to increase and gang violence becomes more of a factor. To that end I’d leave you the responsibility of researching crime statistics.