Gloomy season pics - photos ONLY (Portland, Cove: stats, average, flooding)

[Ryant]

Thanks, it's up by Greenleaf peak.. on the PCT or around there. Here's one from a couple weeks ago.

[sendij1]

Originally Posted by Sprightly

RyanT, gorgeous pictures - where is that turquoise lake?

those are beautiful, love the blue lake.

[Ryant]

[sunscribble]

I found two YouTube videos that give an idea of what the city streets look like in the rain, so I thought I would share. In the close-in neighborhoods, you don't have quite as much green to balance out the gray skies. I feel that these videos more accurately reflect the rain than pictures can, because you can actually see and hear the rain. I should point out that it doesn't rain this hard every day; however, it's not uncommon to have 20 days in a row overcast like this, just with lighter rain most of the time. Another website that gives a good overview of how many sunny days to expect in a typical winter/spring month (2003): http://www.oregonphotos.com/Rainy.html. Looking at the total number of sunny/cloudy days per year is helpful, but remember that Portland summers are mostly sunny, so all of the cloudy days (200+) are concentrated into the fall/winter/spring months, perhaps making it seem more consistently gloomy here than other cities (depending on your perspective).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJFFm12mBfw

And in case you are wondering, it is not uncommon to find Portlanders who drive like this... insisting that you turn left in front of them even though they have the right of way, talking on the cell phone even though it is illegal, driving very slowly, etc.

[sunscribble]

Here is the second video:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWWiz...eature=channel

[sunscribble]

Originally Posted by roneb

I DON'T want to sound like a negative curmudgeon (though I'm sure I will!), but anyone who takes the photos posted here as a accurate representation of Portland in the winter is not getting a very honest representation. I'd like to say I had some better/more accurate representations, but as I don't typically carry a camera around with me in the winter (particularly on any drizzly days), I don't have any to post.

And I must take exception to the photo of Vista House and the Columbia River Gorge. Yes, it's a beautiful shot, but not typical for winter or even of a cloudy day. Anyone familiar with the setting and the tones in the picture could tell at a glance that the photo was taken in late afternoon or evening with the setting sun coming through a thin cloud cover. Yes, there are clouds in the background, further up the Gorge (east), but it is actually sunny in that photo! On a more typical winter day you might not even be able to see beacon rock in the background due to cloud and weather conditions.

I agree with roneb - many of these photos were taken on partly sunny days (those days we Oregonians cherish so much because there is only a thin cloud layer, making it possible to almost see the sun through the clouds, and sometimes even a few patches of blue sky). The photos are beautiful, and I have enjoyed looking at them, but I think it's important for people to know that in Portland we have many different types of overcast skies, and it's the monotonous gray blanket overcast that most people complain about, not the more bulbous stormy clouds shown in many of these photos.

If you are moving to Portland from the Southwest, take some time to learn the difference between a Rocky Mountain thunderstorm and a constant, low-hanging, gray blanket type of overcast. Many people have never experienced the latter. I had one friend who moved to the Northwest from the Southwest saying that she loved rain and couldn't wait to get away from the sun. It later became clear that she loved the Rocky Mountain type of rain storms, which typically last less than an hour and come with varying colors of bulbous clouds, blue skies, and rainbows, truly a site to see. Those types of storms are far less common here. It is far more common to have a monotonous gray blanket over you with sprinkles or lighter rain coming down continuously for hours (or days) at a time. Long story short, my friend wound up hating the gray blanket type of overcast and moved back to the Southwest. So it's true that some people just can't handle the gloom.

On a positive note, mdvaden, Lee151, and Ryant have shown that waterfalls and beautiful nature sites can still be beautiful on overcast days. For me, the overcast skies don't really bother me that much when I'm outside. It's when I'm inside that I notice them the most, because it is so dark inside (this is difficult to capture in a photo). When I'm at home during the day, I have to turn on the lights to battle the dimness. If you are coming from the Southwest or another sunny locale, put thin black sheets over all of your windows to imagine a similar affect. There is no bright light bursting through the blinds, only a filtered, dim, gray light.

Originally Posted by Pfhtex

Hey how about some pics of the dreaded gloomy season? We have a ton of beautiful Spring and Summer photos, but can people please post what some call the "bad side" of living here?

This is a great topic Pfhtex, so let's keep it on track.

Anyone else have any gloomy weather pics to post (beautiful or otherwise)?

[Or3g0n]

Whaaat!!!! That rain in the video is HEAVY. We only get that much downpour like.. few days out of whole year...? Most of time it is MIST

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by Or3g0n

Whaaat!!!! That rain in the video is HEAVY. We only get that much downpour like.. few days out of whole year...? Most of time it is MIST

Yes, that isn't even remotely representative of usual winter rain. My guess is it is that last big "pineapple express" weather event, part of the La Nina weather cycle. Oregon (and the west coast in general) see this weather event every 4-7 years and there are usually a very few days like this.

Consider that Portland gets around 40" of rain a year and these storms can dump an inch to several inches in a single day. With a rainy season of minimum November through April, if it rained liked this for six months, the total would be far greater than 40".

[sunscribble]

Originally Posted by Or3g0n

Whaaat!!!! That rain in the video is HEAVY. We only get that much downpour like.. few days out of whole year...? Most of time it is MIST

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

Yes, that isn't even remotely representative of usual winter rain. My guess is it is that last big "pineapple express" weather event, part of the La Nina weather cycle. Oregon (and the west coast in general) see this weather event every 4-7 years and there are usually a very few days like this. Consider that Portland gets around 40" of rain a year and these storms can dump an inch to several inches in a single day. With a rainy season of minimum November through April, if it rained liked this for six months, the total would be far greater than 40".

Are you guys talking about the 1st video or the 2nd video?

If you listen to the guy in the downpour video (2nd video), he explains that that type of downpour only happens a few times per year.

I would say that the rain in the driving video is slightly heavy, but not uncommon. I have had to put my wipers on high on multiple occasions (actually, thousands would be more accurate).

True, it doesn't rain hard every day, but we get more than mist in Portland. We get ALL kinds of rain. Someone should calculate the number of mist hours vs. sprinkle hours vs. light rain hours vs. heavy rain hours vs. downpour hours. Until somebody finds that statistic, it's all subjective, really. For some people, one hour of heavy rain makes it a rainy day. For you, you would probably call that a misty day based on the other 23 hours of non-heavy rain. It's a good thing that we are all here to balance each other out so that people can get a feel for what it's really like.

[EnricoV]

Both videos are extreme rain. That's why the guy took the videos in the first place. Because it was out of the ordinary.

And if it's supposed to be the norm, why is it that the total inches of rainfall in Oregon isn't higher? It's not, because there's not that much volume. It's just more frequent. You can start with this page on this website. Top 101 wettest cities? Not an Oregon city on the page.

What it does is rain more in the winter and less in the summer than the U.S. average. And, let's see ... if you can have only one, would we rather have rainy summers or dry winters? Not a hard choice there.