I live in the area of Lake Washington, so probably an hour and a half south of Bellingham. I can tell you that the weather up north of here is different - colder in the winter, far greater chance of snow - it’s just a different climate there. However, I’ve never heard anything but good about the area. And you’re a lot closer to Canada if you want to visit (it’s a 3 hour trip for me).
As for the drought, I’m not sure how that will affect you. Summers here tend to be hot (by our standards - in the 90’s Farenheit) and dry (by our standards - last summer we had something like 90 days straight with no rain, and even mature, established trees and bushes were dying). It gets cold in the fall, gets gray, gets rainy, and then you just stay inside. Or that’s what I do.