The Rain in Portland (live in, summer, single)

[wanderbygrace]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

70 days?

Yeah, yeah. Keep up the misinformation. Care to cite a source proving that fake statistic?

Well, if you go by the number of "clear" days on this, the poster is actually overstating it slightly, as this says 68 "clear" days.
Mean Number of Clear Days - Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC)

I suppose it's all how you define a sunny day.

[Beenhere4ever]

Probably most locations in North America have a small number of clear days. The "norm" is partly sunny or partly cloudy. And since that is true, most North Americans are quite used to it, and it is silly to pretend Portland is unique in this. Years ago, I read that the cloudiest month was January, and 55 percent of that month was overcast. Which means even in the CLOUDIEST month, there are normally about 15 days that have sunshine. I wouldnt doubt that people who love living in a green state would hope that number doesn't increase. All sorts of agriculture are big in the Willamette Valley. And the kind of irrigation typical in Eastern Washington and Oregon are not assumed to be necessary for Willamette Valley farmers. Much less rain could hurt them.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by wanderbygrace

Well, if you go by the number of "clear" days on this, the poster is actually overstating it slightly, as this says 68 "clear" days.
Mean Number of Clear Days - Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC)

I suppose it's all how you define a sunny day.

Or where you're getting your statistics from. Love a bunch of numbers on a page that have no connection to anything factual. What is the coverage? What year are they talking about? How is anyone to verify anything that website has to say?

But if anyone thinks that summer doesn't last longer than 2 months in Oregon, doesn't know what they're talking about.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

[Beenhere4ever]

By me, Portland has a nice summer. Some days are VERY hot, but usually not unpleasant. Good days for wind surfing on the Columbia or biking, I would think.

[Sondeera]

Oh my gosh that video of the cars sliding EVERYWHERE terrifies the poop out of me. Really wishing our SUV was AWD now since my husband will be going on sales calls in WA/OR/ID once we move to PDX. I am (obviously) going to need to read up on getting winterized since I'm a sunny SoCal native (yeah, I know, the hated). My driving will be minimal, but my sweetheart will be in the field 70% of the time.

I had already planned on starting a thread asking you fine folks for advice as to how to get our wardrobes/belongings/cars up to par for PDX winters. Sounds like that's the way to go.

[EnricoV]

There's a reason they film stuff like that ... because it RARELY happens.

[roneb]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

Or where you're getting your statistics from. Love a bunch of numbers on a page that have no connection to anything factual. What is the coverage? What year are they talking about? How is anyone to verify anything that website has to say?

But if anyone thinks that summer doesn't last longer than 2 months in Oregon, doesn't know what they're talking about.

Are you seriously kidding me about calling this poster out on their easily verified link? The Western Regional Climate Center works closely with the NOAA and is the first resource meteorologists throughout the west go to for historical weather data. It is the most objective and "factual" resource they possibly could have cited!

If it says 68 clear days, you can be pretty damn sure that's what it is. The problem is that you'd need to check another page for partly cloudy days or days with precipitation. One thing is readily apparent in looking at the data and reinforces certain perceptions about Portland - Fully half of the clear days show up in July, August, and Sept. Take away lesson - winter has FAR FEWER "clear" days (average 2-3 days for Nov-May).

For me personally, having grown up in Montana and Alaska, I find it hard to take. Anchorage, Alaska was a great example. It actually has the reverse pattern, with few clear days in summer, but about twice as many in winter. For me personally, winter was much easier to take with more sun (even with fewer hours of daylight) and a blanket of snow covering everything that increased the ambient light on an overcast day.

I've said it before - it ain't the rain as much as the dark gray.

[mateo384]

As a general rule, and I've lived in PDX over 10 years, yes it is true that summer is only 2 months long. July and August. We've seen plenty of dreary June months. September is nice, but the 2nd half I wouldn't really classify as summer. This year was fantastic tho, as the warm, dry, and sunny days lasted until October.

[Minervah]

It seems to me that Portland summers are changing. When I first moved here over thirty years ago, they seemed to really begin after the fourth of July when they would become warm and dry and often go through September, sometimes even through mid October. We also had more days in the triple digits. Not a whole lot but more than we do now.

But then it seems in around the last decade or so, it's been gradually changing to where summer begins later, we have gotten a bit more humidity, some sprinkles, they are cooler and summer just hasn't lasted as long.

Nothing scientific, it just seems to me........