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Toronto winters are obviously much colder than winters in Portland (Oregon), but winter in Portland is wetter and longer, really most of the year in Portland is winter and the rest, only about 3 months is summer.
The dampness in Portland also makes it feel colder than it actually is. 40F in Portland is often just as chilling as -5C in Toronto would be.
Which do you think takes more guts to endure, overall?
I would prefer Portland. I will take the milder winter 99% of the time. While maybe Toronto is not as gloomy as Portland, its hardly consistently sunny either, so the difference there is not that great.
Another factor is the options for active winter sports is significantly better outside of Portland than Toronto.
I'll take Portland's winter weather any day. The temps are quite mild compared to Toronto's. You don't need to be bundled up. Lots of green and some flowers still blooming in the winter. Love hanging out a Pioneer Courthouse Square during the Christmas season.
I've never spent time in Toronto in the winter, but I spent 4 years in Edmonton, Alberta as a kid and now live in Portland. And while Edmonton is probably colder(though maybe sunnier)then Toronto, I imagine it's somewhat similar. A Canadian winter can be a beautiful thing, but the freezing bitter cold on the other hand isn't for everyone. Not that I didn't love frozen ponds and hockey or skiing on the hills outside of town. But it takes a little time to get used to if you don't grow up in a very cold-weather climate to get used to driving on ice, shoveling out a drive way, starting your car in the cold, wearing several layers of clothing for that walk home, and so on. And in the end I liked my time in Canada, but some other members of my family like my mom were happy to return to the US West Coast. There's a reason where if I travel to any warm Latin American location in the winter, there's always a high proportion of Canadians.
A Portland winter on the other hand is just sort of grey coastal-influenced weather(though at the same time it can get sunny occasionally)--but it doesn't really take much effort to get through. Except for how much one desires a sunny day or imagines how bad it will be. But it's going to very cloudy with rain and low clouds for much of the time--but it's not that bad to manage. Temperatures can range from the 30s to 60s though it's mostly the 40s and 50s. And there's times in the NW when a high pressure system sits off the coast for a week or two in January or February and we get 65 degrees and sunny weather from the coast to the Cascades. And when it's pouring rain in Portland it can be dumping snow on Mt. Hood--as long as the snow isn't wet, you can get some great powder days if you know when to go.
Gee, let's see. In Toronto, would I have to wear something other than my Birkenstocks and wear a coat other than my fleece vest in the winters? If so, there's no comparison. Portland, hands down.
People forget the Great Lakes region is rather cloudy as well. Toronto isn't much sunnier than Portland in the winter.
Portland easily.
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