Outdoors and Rain (Portland, Bend: house, rent, art)

[albinoazian]

My understanding is that there is A LOT of rain in Western Oregon, but it is also the place to be or outdoor activities. I am curious how you can do all of these outdoor activities if it is always raining? I am an outdoor (hiking, camping, etc.) type person, but in SoCal forget about it. So, I have been looking at Oregon and Colorado and even Asheville, NC (except I think the teacher pay in Asheville is too low for quality of life). Anyhow, just wondering how you do all of these outdoor things if it is pouring rain?

[Clear2land]

Here are some myths about Oregon rain. It rains every single day. It rains constantly all year around. People in Oregon don’t like the rain. All of these are myths lets keep going. Oregon gets more rain than any other state (38 states get more rain than Oregon). When I was a young DJ on the radio, 16 years old, I decided to hold a rain dance in the parking lot. Under clear blue skies, we had to put a sprinkler out to simulate the rain. It did not bring any rain. When it rains it always pours cats and dogs. Never saw a cat or dog fall out of the sky. It rains day after day. You can never plan anything outdoors because it might rain. All of this is a myth.

In Oregon you will see mist, sprinkles, scattered showers, intermittent rain, rain, heavy rain, downpour, and cloudburst. I say throw your raincoat in the car and go enjoy the outdoors.

Clear2Land

[lilypad]

Clear2land forgot ice, sleet, slush and snow.

It rains NEARLY every day; it rains fairly constantly about 9-10 months out of the year; most Oregonians I met loved the rain, including my dad and nephew! So if you move there, get used to it, as you will never go out of the house if you are not willing to get wet! The air is clean and wonderful, and the landscape lush and beautiful, so is a tradeoff.

[Clear2land]

Hi Lilypad:

Yes, lets add that to the list. Depending where you are, you will see sleet, snow, and ice. You may not get to see it every year but if you live there long enough, you will have a story or two to tell. In Portland, I had three inches of ice on my car that I broke off with a hammer in sheets. That is my ice story to tell.

There is money to be made in Portland when it snows. A buddy of mine and I pulled cars up a hill for 50 cents once when it was snowing. We grabbed them by the door handle and pulled. We came home with our pickets full of change. Some people were handing us a dollar bill out the window. Young entrepreneurs, we were the happiest two kids on 42nd Street.

Dan

[seashelly]

Define 'rain'. lol. During the summer and early fall months it's bone dry (that's why we have a ban-on-outdoor-burning season) - that's here along the Coast. As for raining every day, well, some 'rain' is more like heavy fog that just curls your hair. Weather systems move fast here. It can pour down rain in the morning and by early afternoon, you can't even tell it even rained. The constant breezes must dry off the pavement. Sometime it even rains with the sun shining brightly, lol. Oregon has the prettiest rainbows, doubles sometimes. Very rarely do I see someone in Oregon using an umbrella. We just run between raindrops.

[lady_jet]

They don't tan, they rust.

Anyone can do anything in the rain as long as it's not freezing cold. If you've never lived in WI or MI or NY or MN or MT or any of the northern states, you can do a lot more ion the rain than you thought when you are snowbound for a portion of the year due to the amount of snow or below zero temperatures.

I grew up in East Central WI between Lake Michigan and Lake Winnebago with 20 ft. drops of snow and 75-degrees below zero with the windchill. Now move to Seattle where it rarely snows and you have rain. I happen to love walking in the rain and in the fog. I can do it all year long for the rain part, and in the spring and fall for the fog part. I could camp in the rain and jump into a hot spring. We'd go camping and stay in the tent and talk, play chess, drink and play cards, or whatever. You can get out any time of the year and not worry about glare ice, snow banks, people who cannot drive in the snow (except when it snows in Seattle or Portland and then watch out cuz those 4-wheelers think they can drive on snow going too fast).

You have to put it in perspective. Besides, if you don't want the rain, you can go to Eastern OR or WA and get more sun than you can ask for.

WA has 7 climatic zones and I think OR has 6 (they don't have the Ho rain forest). You can't look at one portion of the State for things to do, you have to look at the whole state.

And if you like being in the city, then you go to clubs, classes, church, or home, library, friends, concerts, symphonies, plays, home, or you go to museums, the theatre, musicals, outdoor theatres, movies and home. Just open your mind and your eyes and you will see a whole slew of things you can do.

And when you live in areas like Portland or Seattle or anywhere along the Western coastal areas, you look younger, longer. And I'm talking 10-20 years younger...no moisturizers, no botox, no face lifts. What more can a man or woman ask for?

Jet

[ontheroad]

I can only compare living in the rain with my years in Amsterdam. Not only did it rain often (about 20 of 30 days a month) we had names in Dutch for all the different kinds of rain

And yes, one can do nearly anything in the rain, if it isn't pellets. I rode my bike, did my errands, and lugged an infant on the bike, in those rains with a smile on my face.

Now, perhaps if I had stayed here, I'd look 10-20 years younger but I can say I don't recall owning moisturizing creams and I didn't have or want to wash my hair as often (as elsewhere). Saved money, too!

[Steve97415]

Rain is very seasonal here. We can do all those outdoor things because there is no rain in summer and limited rain in spring and autumn. When you consider who our semi-arid neighbors are -- Idaho, Nevada and California -- western Oregon is wet by comparison (many areas in eastern Oregon get less yearly rainfall than communities in Arizona and New Mexico). The difficult thing is that you don't have long warm sunny stretches in between storm cells that bring rain as you do in SoCal. In western OR it's cool and cloudy in winter even when not raining. During the wettest time of year (mid-winter), there is rain one day out of two. Moving here from southern Arizona, it took some getting used to. If you moved here from Wisconsin, then it would seem very mild by comparison. It isn't the total number of inches per year, but rather the mean number of precipitation days that can get difficult. Here is a site that will allow you to do some comparisons of number of precipitation days in different areas of the country.

http://www.worldweather.org/093/m093.htm

[Brett]

Gor tex is your friend in Oregon.
Spend the money on good rain pants and jackets and smile. It's rarely that cold so you can get out every day.

also wool socks and good boots help.

[nanannie]

It rains here,and rains and rains and rains.BUT,unless its the frozen kind,it doesnt stop people from venturing out.Lots of good rain gear available.Its the constant grey that wears a lot of folks down though IMHO.In Bend,we have more sun,more activity and more people and SUV's moving to the area