Weather/Sunshine ? Where to live near Eugene? (Corvallis, Junction City: homes, employment)

[Randall999]

I am seriously researching the Eugene area to move to to escape from the bitter cold of northern MN (we get about four weeks of -30F, not pleasant; OR/Eugene looks to have much milder winters!). Recently took early retirement, so employment is not an issue. I have looked at the weather graphs showing sunshine, humidity, temperature, etc here on City Data, but nothing is better than hearing the truth from those that live in an area. I am wondering just how bad the 'dismal' mist/cloudiness is, now much sunshine one sees if living in the area? Granted, I currently live in an area with lots of overcast and dark winter evenings, so I am not expecting anything like Arizona, just wondering if the area is like that Married With Children episode, you know, the one where the Bundies end up in a town cursed with 24/7/365 dark mist, lol.

Related-- what areas/cities just outside of Eugene would anybody recommend for living, if what I want to do is build a geodesic dome home (preferably off the grid-- solar, septic, wind, well) on maybe 3-10 acreas of land, but be close enough so I could drive maybe 5-10 miles into some nearby town (daily coffeeshop ritual for writing) and be close enough to Eugene to drive in for shopping, theater, culture, etc? No kids, so schools not an issue.

Any help/advice greatly appreciated.
Randall

[5thgenSF]

i'm an hour south of there so i can't speak to that weather specifically.... but i hear it's better down here!

maybe the yurt company can give you some ideas on what you would like to build:

Pacific Yurts

[Randall999]

Originally Posted by 5thgenSF

...maybe the yurt company can give you some ideas on what you would like to build]

I am already set on a dome, no yurts.

[Steve Pickering]

The one dome built in Lane county has been condemed.

[5thgenSF]

Originally Posted by Randall999

I am already set on a dome, no yurts.

i wasn't suggesting a yurt. i was suggesting they might know more about building alternative homes.

[Mr Eugenified]

Originally Posted by Randall999

I am seriously researching the Eugene area to move to to escape from the bitter cold of northern MN (we get about four weeks of -30F, not pleasant; OR/Eugene looks to have much milder winters!). Recently took early retirement, so employment is not an issue. I have looked at the weather graphs showing sunshine, humidity, temperature, etc here on City Data, but nothing is better than hearing the truth from those that live in an area. I am wondering just how bad the 'dismal' mist/cloudiness is, now much sunshine one sees if living in the area? Granted, I currently live in an area with lots of overcast and dark winter evenings, so I am not expecting anything like Arizona, just wondering if the area is like that Married With Children episode, you know, the one where the Bundies end up in a town cursed with 24/7/365 dark mist, lol.

I wrote a daily weather log for one year a while back that can give you a more qualitative idea about the weather in Eugene: http://eugenified.com/reviews/eugene-oregon-weather/

[ClassicCarFamily]

I used to live in Eugene/Santa Clara area for many yrs, native Oregonian. Summers are beautiful but you have a lot of rainy misty days in the other months and after Christmas we would get light snow and icicles on the eaves of the house. I really miss it. At the time there was a lot of land available and the Junction City area was nice and so was Corvallis. I think it is pretty cool you want to build an energy efficient home. Can you post pics of your project once you start your build? I really love Oregon and the Eugene area that I mentioned was really nice when we lived there.

[Randall999]

Nice! I just scanned through your diary, wow. SOOOOoooo much milder than here in northern Minnesota. Especially WINTER. Jan/Feb here, think high temps of -20 to +20, think 2-4 weeks of -35 to -45 lows at night and highs in daytime of -10, then you get an idea of how bitter cold it is here and why i have had enough of this after 25 years here. We have SNOW in our mall parking lot until June, JUNE for crying out loud, and snow finally melts from yards about mid MAY. No way to live, trust me. We are the pit of the nation for cold, we get those arctic cold air masses that come down out of Cananda and chill our bones-- where you can toss a cup of hot coffee in the air and it lands on the ground as ice crystals, where you can use a banana as a hammer, where your car seat feels like concrete in a Fred Flintstone car.

[Mr Eugenified]

Originally Posted by Randall999

We are the pit of the nation for cold, we get those arctic cold air masses that come down out of Cananda and chill our bones-- where you can toss a cup of hot coffee in the air and it lands on the ground as ice crystals, where you can use a banana as a hammer, where your car seat feels like concrete in a Fred Flintstone car.

On the bright side, you probably save tons of money not having to purchase hammers.

[cave76]

I don't know if you've decided yet or not but let me tell you my impression of Eugene. I moved here two years ago after having said all my life I'd never move here because of the rain and gray days. (I 'had to'---- for personal health reasons.)

I was pleasantly surprised that the weather forecasts online didn't give the real picture. Many many of the days that forecast rain merely meant a very light drizzle; one that you would hardly need an umbrella for going from the car into a store. Sometimes, where I live, there isn't even a drizzle in my neighborhood but will be a few miles away.

Gray? Still too much for my personal and picky likes but 'overcast' or 'cloudy' often means the sun will peak through at various times during the day.

Snow? In two years one snowfall each year, maybe two, that throws the town into a 'panic' but you would laugh at it.

A 'rainstorm' is not anything like what you might get in MN in the summer. Thunder? Maybe two or three claps the entire year.

The Willamette Valley is very moderate in temperature. Not too hot and not too cold and although more 'days' of rain (drizzle) but 1/10th of an inch is considered rain. If you garden you can find many plants that will survive through the winter, stay green. Especially 'our' rhododendrons!

Don't let the longitude fool you. Eugene and lower MN cities aren't that far apart, longitudinally, but almost a different continent in terms of weather.