What is the weather REALLY like in Bend? (Portland, Klamath Falls: living, moving to)

[Moving on888]

I am currently living outside Ann Arbor, MI My wife, kids and I HATE the weather here. We moved here two years ago from San Jose, CA. We are looking into moving to Bend. Can a few Bend residents please help us out by letting us know what the general weather is like from Oct. through April. The winters here are way too grey and December to March there are just too many days with highs only reaching into the 20's. We can have 6-10 solid weeks of dismal grey skies. Is Bend much different???

[PNW-type-gal]

I'm not familiar with Ann Arbor, but looking at the weather on the City Data pages side-by-side, Bend will be warmer in winter (the average high in January is about 40), much less snow, and not much more sun. The summers would be about the same, temp-wise, although much less humid. The summers might feel hotter, because the higher-altitude sun has more punch.

You'd also be moving to a town less than half the size. If you're looking for San Jose-style weather, you won't find it in Bend.

[Raspberry]

If you're looking at oregon and want more sun during the winter, I believe the columbia river gorge especially the eastern parts (The dalles, goldendale) get more sunshine and are more dry/arid climates, but are pretty small towns. The nearest city to them is Portland.

[OchocoWesterner]

We live about 40 miles from Bend and love the weather here. The daytime summer temps are hot but it cools off drastically at night. Most of us don't even have air conditioning. Our past couple of winters have been very mild, but normally we have some snow on the ground from around Thanksgiving to March. Here at our house, during a normal winter, we might have anywhere from 6-10 inches on the ground for most of the winter. We live on Grizzly Mountain which is a little north and east of Bend. What makes the snow bearable is the gorgeous, abundant sunshine we have all winter long! You really can't beat the winters here....if you like snow

[Bendite]

Having lived in Detroit for one miserable year, and for several years in the San Jose area many years ago, I'd say the climate in Bend is different enough from both to make it hard to compare. It can get downright freezing here, but it is often dry and the sun is shining. There is often some snow on the ground during the winter, but outside of a few terrible days a year with icy roads, overall the driving is not too bad (this from someone who moved to Bend from Colorado a few years ago - everything is relative!) The fall here is simply gorgeous. A couple of days ago, nearby Santiam Pass got 20 inches of snow and Bend got a trace. Today, it is 69 degrees and not a cloud in the sky and the Cascade mountains are all topped with white.

[CLambert]

Anyone out there who lives (or have lived) in Bend, OR who can tell me about the winter weather? My husband and I visited a couple of years ago and have considered it as a possible place to live. Does it really get 300+ days of sun? The reason I'm asking...we lived in Portland, OR for 2 years and the rain/overcast made me CRAZY!. Does Bend have a lot of overcast days like Portland? I've followed the internet weather but would really like some feedback from people who have lived there. Thank you in advance for your time.

[kapetrich]

Originally Posted by CLambert

Anyone out there who lives (or have lived) in Bend, OR who can tell me about the winter weather? My husband and I visited a couple of years ago and have considered it as a possible place to live. Does it really get 300+ days of sun? The reason I'm asking...we lived in Portland, OR for 2 years and the rain/overcast made me CRAZY!. Does Bend have a lot of overcast days like Portland? I've followed the internet weather but would really like some feedback from people who have lived there. Thank you in advance for your time.

ALL the internet weather sites, including NOAA (which is the most accurate..), are completely off when predicting weather in Bend on a regular basis. If you go by them, you'd think it was cloudy here in the winter months day in and day out - this is not the case from my experience and I live in Bend.

As for sun:

I believe 300 days of sunshine is an exaggeration for sure. From my research there is about 240-270ish which, to what I was used to -North East-, is an amazing amount of sunshine.

The amount of sunshine (in an objective sense) seems to be relative to where you hail from. Coming from Portland, I believe you'll find Bend to be extremely sunny especially in the winter months.....Buuuut, if you were moving from a place in the sunbelt (Arizona and the like) or Colorado you may find it to be cloudier than you're were used to, but still by no mean cloudy.....imo.

Also, from my limited experience and over-research there seems to be two distinct weather extremes in Bend. You have two months of guaranteed cold/snow -Dec & Jan- and two months of guarantee hot and sunny weather -July & August-. Excluding these 4 months, the temperatures are pretty unpredictable which makes sense at the altitude/proximity to the range.

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@ Mod: Shouldn't this be relocated to the General Oregon forum.....and maybe we can get a Bend sub-forum some time ;p

[CLambert]

Originally Posted by kapetrich

ALL the internet weather sites, including NOAA (which is the most accurate..), are completely off when predicting weather in Bend on a regular basis. If you go by them, you'd think it was cloudy here in the winter months day in and day out - this is not the case from my experience and I live in Bend.

As for sun:

I believe 300 days of sunshine is an exaggeration for sure. From my research there is about 240-270ish which, to what I was used to -North East-, is an amazing amount of sunshine.

The amount of sunshine (in an objective sense) seems to be relative to where you hail from. Coming from Portland, I believe you'll find Bend to be extremely sunny especially in the winter months.....Buuuut, if you were moving from a place in the sunbelt (Arizona and the like) or Colorado you may find it to be cloudier than you're were used to, but still by no mean cloudy.....imo.

Also, from my limited experience and over-research there seems to be two distinct weather extremes in Bend. You have two months of guaranteed cold/snow -Dec & Jan- and two months of guarantee hot and sunny weather -July & August-. Excluding these 4 months, the temperatures are pretty unpredictable which makes sense at the altitude/proximity to the range.

---

@ Mod: Shouldn't this be relocated to the General Oregon forum.....and maybe we can get a Bend sub-forum some time ;p

Thank you so much for your prompt response and detailed reply. And yes, via internet weather it appears cloudy ALL the time in the winter months.

[PNW-type-gal]

The Klamath Falls area is sunnier than the Bend area (although not by much) and we're right around 220-250 days of sun. Both historically and as verified by insolation data off my weather station over 4 years (and about 10 years of insolation data from the local solar install company). Granted that's short term in both cases, but at least I know where and how the data was collected and what is meant by "sun."

The bleakest months are December and January.

[kapetrich]

Originally Posted by CLambert

Thank you so much for your prompt response and detailed reply. And yes, via internet weather it appears cloudy ALL the time in the winter months.

No problem. Glad I could help.

Just to add on weather sites having terrible data and predictability for this area: Today was predicted to be cloudy all day. What did we get (at least where I live - remember, there are many small micro climates here due to elevation):

Sun came out blazing around 8:30am and continuously got sunnier and more cloudless as the day went on. Once the sun set an inversion layer settled down in town making it foggy, but still, none the less VERY sunny all day today when predicted completely opposite by ALL the major weather outlets that I can find.

This happens on a regular basis.