how is the humidity in portland (2009, live, moving to)

[svelte]

thinking of moving from california to portland
how is the humidity ?thats the only thing
i cant handle is high humidity.

[sayulita]

Not to worry. The humidity here is hardly noticeable 99% 0f the time.

[Explorer Dave]

Originally Posted by svelte

thinking of moving from california to portland
how is the humidity ?thats the only thing
i cant handle is high humidity.

From my experience everyplace east of the Rockies has higher humidity than west. If you stay on the west coast you should be fine, except for dryer skin LOL.

[burnhams]

You'll be fine, humidity is really not ever a problem here.

[figmalt]

Having lived in the desert for the first half of my life prior to moving to Portland, I have a slightly different take on things. Portland is humid and damp. I realize that it is not so humid as many places in the east and south, but to say it's not humid is inaccurate, especially if you're coming from a dry part of California.

However, it is not unbearable or terribly uncomfortable most of the time. You'll notice that food goes stale much more quickly, and a general stickiness when it's warm, but you should adapt just fine. Look for a place with air conditioning and invest in a dehumidifier if you're sensitive.

[jeimuzu00]

what humidity?

[skinem]

It's relative. Of course, you can look and see what the data show, but how it feels depends upon what you're used to.
Having lived much of my life in the high desert of Eastern Oregon and in Eastern Washington, I found Portland humid and damp. One of the hottest days I experienced was one day in the 1990s when it hit 102 or 103 in Portland, and my car AC had gone out. Of course, I felt this way because where I had been in EO people started complaining about the humidity when it hits 20%!

Now on the other hand, I've spent much of the other part of my life in the South---where comparitively speaking, Portland is arid...or at least not nearly so dadgum hot and oppressive...

[rhodan653]

When it is damp, it is cool, from Nov through April and so you do not get the cloying stickiness. When it is hot, May through September, it is very arid (this is coming from someone used to East Coast humidity). I guess if you have lived in the desert, it may appear to be humid, but in the general scheme of things it does not get hot and humid here at all.

[hummingbird3]

Originally Posted by figmalt

Having lived in the desert for the first half of my life prior to moving to Portland, I have a slightly different take on things. Portland is humid and damp. I realize that it is not so humid as many places in the east and south, but to say it's not humid is inaccurate, especially if you're coming from a dry part of California.

However, it is not unbearable or terribly uncomfortable most of the time. You'll notice that food goes stale much more quickly, and a general stickiness when it's warm, but you should adapt just fine. Look for a place with air conditioning and invest in a dehumidifier if you're sensitive.

I agree with this: Portland is humid and damp. And this past summer of 2009 has been really humid compared to other summers.

[GJBenn85]

What is really humid, percentage wise? It has been more than 15 years since I was last in Oregon and cannot remember the humidity, and I am now "used" to tolerating humidity exceeding 80%. Anything under 65% is great, IMO.