Thoughts/Questions on Oregon after recent visit.

[KarlaT2]

Brookings, on the coast close to California border, has lots of retirees from what I've heard. Beautiful beaches too.

[echocity]

There are actually two "Oregons" at least. As far as rain goes there is a tremendous difference from one side of the state to the other. I live in Echo, Umatilla County and we get about 8 inches per year, but 20 miles away in Pendelton they get closer to 14 inc. Politics is equally divided. Eastern Oregon tends to be more conservative and western Oregon more Liberal, especially in the Eugene area and Portland areas. Scenery is equally different. We have coast, green lower elevation Coast mountains, high Cascades and middle range, but dry Blue Mountains. In my area we tend to be dry high desert climate with green river valleys

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by davefr

The coast seems to have more sun in the winter then the valley.

In the valley you can have weeks go by without ever seeing the sun. The valley tends to get the gloom, fog and overcast that stays for long periods of time. (the lower the elevation, the worse it is)

Even though the coast is wetter then the valley, it seems like the storms move in and move out with some period of sun in between. I haven't seen the coast get these month long stretches of constant fog, overcast and gloom. The weather on the coast is much more dynamic.

I think you are right about this. This same general pattern holds true for Central and Northern California also. The Central Valley of CA gets less sunshine in winter than the Coast, yet the coast gets more winter rain, whereas the Central Valley gets winter fog.

That said, nowhere in western OR is really sunny. The sun shines 48% of the daylight hours in Portland, Oregon. Hardly a sunny place.

If you look at the list, you'll see that Portland ranks toward the bottom in % of possible sunshine:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/...pctposrank.txt