Winter 2013/2014

[kapetrich]

Originally Posted by Cascade4567

I have to add... I have lived here off and on for about 15 years now, with some spells in Northern New Mexico(Santa Fe), Southern Colorado(Durango), Dallas(home), and Austin. This was on average the warmest Winter I have ever experienced here. I would also like to add that people(I guess who are looking to relocate) need to actually research and check the averages on weather. This is very simple now days and its funny to me to listen to people who really "exagerate" the weather where ever it is they come from. Mainly because weather is a factual science that can be looked up and seen on any given date in recorded history.

Back to Bend, I will not go on and on about my personal opinion. I love the weather here, its exactly the same as the weather, give or take a few here and there as the weather back in Santa Fe and Durango! I love the colder high desert locations and the low precipitation it provides. I will say that Bend definitely does not get near the amount of sun and cloudless days the other two recieve but for the Northwest I will say its definitely sunny!

The best way for me to describe Bend's weather to someone who is asking is that although it is sunny and dry a large part of the year it can be cold. We have one of the shortest growing seasons in the continental US and average almost 200 nights a year below freezing. Snow is low I guess compared to other "Ski Towns" at about 33 inches but compared to many cities, its not low. Its more than New York(City), Philadelphia, DC, and many other coastal cities on the northeast coast. Its not much lower than the midwestern cities, its just at much higher elevation and snow melts much faster with the sun exposure and the large change in temperatures from day to day! I personaly love this fact about the snow, we def get it but it does not stay forever! The summers are perfect in my mind here. The average in July and August is only 81 to 85 degrees and that suprises MANY! The lows during the summer display the huge diurnal range which average about 45 degees at night, which by many places would be downright cold. I mean even in Alaska and some places in Canada have warmer Summer night temps.

After everything is talked about, its all relative and what you are used to and what you like in weather. I prefer the dryness and the cold air in the high desert. Yes you could look at the weather on the east coast this past winter and think to yourself that we have it better here. You should then do some fact checking and realize that they have also been running sometimes weeks on end at about 20 degrees BELOW normal for many places. This is very unusual based on weather facts. They have also gone many winters recently where ski resorts could not open bc of the lack of snow. People need to realize that a good look at a locations weather is to see the average and maybe scope it out for a few years before and after a date to at least to get that average, it will happen! Also for example, my house reached -31 this winter as the lowest temp and the highest during the entire winter was 58 degrees. (up until this last week of course). Although we are saying that we had a mild one, look at places like Denver where the lowest was not our low and they hit 70 a few times through the entire winter! Its just all perspective I guess.

I always wrestle with staying in Bend full time. I love the aspect that if I stay in Durango or Santa Fe, I am closer to my family in North Texas which I could easily drive in a day! Thats a HUGE draw for me. I would also not have to change anything really about my day to day, including weather readiness! I love Bend though and its where I have accidentaly created a home and year after year it becomes harder to leave as I have created family for myself here. I love those people and happy and lucky to have them.

I guess I just wanted to comment that after reading so many posts about the weather, none of it seems fact based and people tend to look at a 7 day forecast for whats "normal". If that were the case then Portland would be sunny to me and Chicago would be warm in December to me based on random forecasts I have seen while I have traveled!

*sorry for any spelling errors, on a tablet ;-)

This is it. Seriously.

One mild clarification....one that I fret to highlight as I'm not trying to be argumentative, just trying to be as precise as we can given the historical data/context. From the historical data I've seen, Bend gets just about as much snow fall as NYC/Philly. Some sites shows Bend with a tad more, some show NYC/Philly with more, but the difference is always fairly negligible in my eyes. What I will say is the nature of the snow falls are very different which is a very important distinction for me and others looking to relocate.

Bend rarely gets large dumps of snow. We get small 1-4 inch snow falls that add up to ~20-40inches over the course of 5-8 months. NYC/Philly (and Baltimore as that's where I'm from) get their snow falls in big storms. They get a foot to two to three foot dumps and the snow totals are accumulated over a 2-3 month period.

Edit: The snow accumulation averages + the time period in which that snow accumulates is important and I think speaks for itself.

[BendLocal]

Seems like at least half the winters get one or more big dumps.

[BendLocal]

Originally Posted by kapetrich

NYC/Philly (and Baltimore as that's where I'm from) get their snow falls in big storms. They get a foot to two to three foot dumps and the snow totals are accumulated over a 2-3 month period.

That data paints a different picture.

Average total snowfall and days with fresh snow in Philadelphia

Snow Days - Month - Inches

4.4 - January - 6.5
3.6 - February - 8.8
1.8 - March - 2.9
0.4 - April - 0.5
0.2 - November - 0.3
1.8 - December - 3.4
12.2 - Year - 22.4


Average total snowfall and days with fresh snow in Baltimore

Snow Days - Month - Inches

3.5 - January - 6.8
2.8 - February - 8.0
1.1 - March - 1.9
0.1 - April - 0.0
0.3 - November - 0.4
1.8 - December - 3.1
9.6 - Year - 20.2