Winter weather questions (Portland, Woodburn: house, tornadoes, camp)

[adamhgkb]

I live in Ohio and would love to relocate to the Portland area in the near future. My question is I had thought winters in Portland were milder than here in Northeast Ohio but from what I have noticed the temps have been about the same as here so far. Maybe slightly warmer. But I see the average highs for Jan and Feb are mid 40s which is warmer than here. Is this usually the coldest parts year? And the get milder as winter goes on? Here it tends to get colder as winter goes along. OR is this just colder than usual?
thanks!

[Hawk J]

Average Weather For Portland, Oregon, USA - WeatherSpark

We've been having an unusual cold spell last few days...

[EnricoV]

Much colder than usual. And certainly not this early. Temperatures below freezing are rare enough, but for the highs to be below freezing is very unusual. The coldest weather usually comes in about January.

[kyled]

Originally Posted by Hawk J

Average Weather For Portland, Oregon, USA - WeatherSpark

We've been having an unusual cold spell last few days...

Average Weather For Cleveland, Ohio, USA - WeatherSpark

Just as a contrast.

[FinchW]

Usually stays in the upper 30s and 40s during the winter, only gets really chilly during late December, January, beginning of February.
Relatively mild, but be prepared to exchange it for rain.
The weather that we're having is pretty unusual for this time of year. The fact that it snowed at all (teeny tiny little flurries that barely stuck to the ground) down where I was located was surprising enough for me.

[turquoise1]

It's been cold as hell lately!

[wanderbygrace]

Originally Posted by adamhgkb

I live in Ohio and would love to relocate to the Portland area in the near future. My question is I had thought winters in Portland were milder than here in Northeast Ohio but from what I have noticed the temps have been about the same as here so far. Maybe slightly warmer. But I see the average highs for Jan and Feb are mid 40s which is warmer than here. Is this usually the coldest parts year? And the get milder as winter goes on? Here it tends to get colder as winter goes along. OR is this just colder than usual?
thanks!

I spent 40+ years in Akron/Canton before moving to the Portland metro in 2011. Believe me, this cold snap is EXTREMELY unusual for this area.

Here is what I've seen so far:
Summer (e.g. July-September) - warm (80's-90's, rarely over 100) and sunny w/almost no humidity; unlike NEO, the humidity & heat work inversely here - when one goes up, the other goes down, therefore, there is extremely rarely a "muggy" feeling like you'd have in Ohio; oh sure, PDX'ers will tell you it feels muggy, but aside from maybe 1-2 days a year, it is NOT the NEO muggy you're used to. Rain is virtually non-existent in this period - let me stress that again - you can go 100 days w/o rain here in the summer. Because of the low humidity, you will rarely desire A/C and almost never at night for sleeping.

Spring/Fall (e.g. Mid-March-June, October-November) - usually 50's-60's for highs and upper 30's/low 40's for lows; doesn't snow; rains a fair amount (mix of sunny days, partly cloudy days & rainy days), but almost always in very short rainfalls or long, misty or drizzly spells; very few drenching downpours; sometimes windy; tornadoes are almost entirely non-existent, as is thunder/lighting; yes, you read that right - you will RARELY experience a thunderstorm out here

Winter (e.g. December to Mid-March): snow is very rare (total of 5-6" per year is about right) and usually doesn't come in bursts more than 1-2"; however, there is very little road treatment, so even a half inch can paralyze the city (esp. since it often involves black ice/ice); long stretches (e.g. week or so) without a good, clear day; often somewhat dark/gloomy w/low cloud deck; temps usually stay above freezing during the day (low 40's) and occasional frost at night, as temps drop into mid 30's to mid 20's; days under 25-30 are very rare and EXTREMELY rare under 15-20; single digits a very definite anomaly; in 2.5 years here, the lowest temperature I've experience was last week at 10 degrees; elevation matters - the higher you go, the colder/snowier you often get, so it can be a blizzard at Government Camp (4500'), light snow at Mt. Scott (1100') and raining over most of the metro area (100'). The only time elevation mattered in Ohio is like where Chardon was - they'd get the lake effect snow worse than somewhere like Eastlake, due to being slightly higher up.

Hope that helps. I brought a snow shovel with me - so far haven't even remotely thought of using it at my house at 150'. Deepest snow at my house so far has been no more than 2". I do park outside, so I use a de-icing spray on my windshields about 10-12 times per year, although probably every day for the last ten days alone with this highly unusual cold snap.

[adamhgkb]

Thanks for the replies that is what I was thinking and hoping to be the truth! That this is an odd spell of cold.......We really want to move there and one of the biggest reasons is the mild temps compared to NE Ohio

[ga rice]

This cold snap isn't the norm as others have pointed out. It was -3.4F at my house 3 days ago in eastern Oregon. My mom in Woodburn said it was +11F at her place. Don't go by the recent weather as an indicator.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

We just about always get a cold snap in January/February when the cold east wind blows and it's clear, cold and sunny for about a week.
Temps usually get down into the twenties and high teens insome areas.

This cold snap is really unusual because of it's length and REALLY COLD (to us anyways) temperatures.
It also seems like it came a little early.

I wonder what winter will bring us!