When should I visit Portland to experience the "worst" weather?

[rosecitywanderer]

Come later this week...the rain is supposed to return by Wednesday or Thursday. It's pretty nice right now, though.

[skylar0201]

Portland is at its darkest, coldest, and wettest from usually anytime from mid Nov to mid Feb. During that roughly 90 day stretch, we *might* have 3 or 4 sunny days, or 5 or 6 days where the entire sky isn't overcast.

OTOH, from July 1st to about Labor Day, we might have half a dozen times where it might rain, but when it does rain, it is never more than 10 or 15 min and then we won't see a cloud in the sky for weeks at a time following that.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by jread

I know people say you should visit a city at the best and the worst parts of the year to really decide if you can handle the weather, so if I wanted to see the worst Portland had to offer, when should I visit?

Just a general date range would be good enough... I want to see Portland at the grayest, rainiest, darkest and most depressing that it possibly can be.

Well, the weather outside today is about 50 degrees and sunny in the middle of February--so don't visit today if you want gray skies.

Portland weather is hit or miss...Living on the West Coast you have to get used to the sometimes randomness of the weather. When I first moved up here from Southern Oregon I heard the only thing you can count on in Portland is that the weather is almost always rainy and gray from about November to March and sunny and dry from June to October. However, inthe last few years I've had plenty of sunny clear days in mid-winter skiing at Mt. Hood or even at the coast. Then again there are periods where it feels like it rains for a month straight. Even in the summer, there are times when it looks like it might rain all the way up to the 4the July---then there are other summers so dry here that people are praying for some rain...

You just have to learn to roll with our weather it if you have any desire in living in Portland. I take solace in knowing that most of the time, when it's pouring rain in Portland in the winter, it's dumping snow on Mt Hood. Meaning we will have better ski conditions and a longer ski season and also have spring runoff--meaning full lakes and rivers in the summer--and spectacular waterfalls in the Gorge.

One thing about Portland though--if you plans revolve around the weather--you've got to learn to be flexible--counting on the weather forecast for the next week can be guesswork let alone months in advance. Which is why every single person I know who plans on having an outdoor wedding in Oregon books seems to plan them in August or September.

[Rob Allen]

Other than the occasional storm, the worst part of the year is the month surrounding the winter solstice. That's when the sun struggles up at about 8am and is gone by 4:30pm. Now, the days are already noticably longer and the bulbs are coming up in the garden, so spring is clearly on its way.

[XandV]

Originally Posted by jms0071

I visited Portland in mid January for a week for the same reason. I guess this winter is one of the better ones because it sure wasn't that bad when I was there.

Talk about winter dragging on. Try Minnesota. We'll be getting another 10 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. This is my last winter here, one way or another. I'll take dark gray drizzle in the 40s with actual green ground over a foot of dirty snow and the 20s, even if it's sunny, any day of the week. And we've had plenty of gray days here this winter. And when it's gray here there's no cloud structure at all. It's just all gray, the sky and the ground with its exhaust soaked snow/muck/ice cover. MN is a frozen swamp hell to me in the winter.

Wow JMS, that's funny because this is EXACTLY how I feel during the winters here in MN. The way I see it, there's no where to go but up when it comes to weather for a Minnesotan. At least out West you guys can head to the mountains and do some real skiing. We just have hills, so unless you snowmobile, you can't even take advantage of our snow!

So yeah, I can't wait until can move to the PNW! Sounds like all you Portlanders have it great to me

[JonMystic]

Somebody tell me this thread is a joke?

[Neologian]

So what I have a hard time understanding is how Portland acquired such a formidable reputation for bad weather. I'm hearing locals talk about roughly 90 days of grey or dreary weather. Let's take those reports of when and how long Portland really is "bad" and compare them to other places like Boston where I currently live. Portland actually wins hands down. I'm originally from the West coast and have been in Boston for over 10 years now. Summers are brief but can be very muggy. Fall is spectacular of course but also painfully brief. New England winters arrive in earnest in late October and we don't have anything like reliable short sleeve Spring days until late March...and if you want genuine "summer heat" you'll have to wait until late May. So here's Boston with about 6-7 months of the year less than ideal, about 4-5 of those spent in genuinely cold, wet, and otherwise dreary conditions. Add to that our latitude and the fact that you wake in darkess only to drive home in darkness from about late December through late Feb. and I really can't see how Portland sticks out as the dour weather capitol of the country.Read more: When should I visit Portland to experience the "worst" weather?

[pdxMIKEpdx]

It seems to me that the Portland of today is much drier and warmer than the Portland of my youth.
I seem to recall a local TV weatherman saying that the last ten years have been a drying trend for Portland.

I think this, combined with technical advances such as GoreTex, the way vehicles are built now compared to vehicles 30 years ago, and newer house construction technology give us the perception of the weather not being so bad.


If you had to wear winter wool, a rubberized raincoat and boots, drive a drafty car or truck on muddy roads, work outside, have a sawdust burning furnace in your poorly insulated old house that had limited electrical capacity with just a few old 40W light bulbs, you would probably complain about the weather in Portland a hell of a lot more.

The above way of life was as recent as 30 years ago...Think back to the 70's. Quite a bit of stuff we take for granted now (that keeps us warm and dry) didn't even exist then.

[Neologian]

Oh yeah....I forgot to add the fact that at least Portland stays relatively green. Here in New England the fall colors are spectacular...but once the leaves are gone then you can add "lifeless" to the general description of our 6 month winters. We get just as many grey or dreary days it seems, if not more in fact, add snow you have to shovel, darkness for your morning and evening commutes then top it all off with lifeless scenery. Seems to me Portland is more than a little unfairly maligned as the seasonal depression capital of the US.....or at least there are multiple locations that deserve equal billing??

[Rob Allen]

True, the green in this area helps, but Portland is further north than Boston - in fact, we're further north than Bangor, Maine - so around the solstice, we get noticeably fewer hours of sunlight. I've lived in Massachusetts, and I notice the difference.