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I've lived in North Carolina most of my life and California for 10 years. Plus several trips up to Portland while I was out west.
The piedmont region of NC is like southern Oregon around Eugene. Maybe a little more humid in the summer, but similar vegetation, occasional snows.
I don't think anywhere in CA is very similar. Most of CA has summers that are too dry to compare to here. If I had to choose a region, perhaps some of the hill country east of Eureka along highway 36, but not all the way to the central valley. I remember once in a while in Orange County, in late July or early August on the most humid of days - I'd get a feeling like I was in the south again.
On the whole though I think N.C.'s humidity is manageable. We have a mid-Atlantic climate and it's not the "deep south" oppressive humidity. Sometimes there is a strong coastal airflow in the late spring around May - you can even smell the ocean in Charlotte, and it's very temperate and pleasant.
I've lived in North Carolina most of my life and California for 10 years. Plus several trips up to Portland while I was out west.
The piedmont region of NC is like southern Oregon around Eugene. Maybe a little more humid in the summer, but similar vegetation, occasional snows.
I don't think anywhere in CA is very similar. Most of CA has summers that are too dry to compare to here. If I had to choose a region, perhaps some of the hill country east of Eureka along highway 36, but not all the way to the central valley. I remember once in a while in Orange County, in late July or early August on the most humid of days - I'd get a feeling like I was in the south again.
On the whole though I think N.C.'s humidity is manageable. We have a mid-Atlantic climate and it's not the "deep south" oppressive humidity. Sometimes there is a strong coastal airflow in the late spring around May - you can even smell the ocean in Charlotte, and it's very temperate and pleasant.
How cold are the winters compared to like Texas etc,
Outside of the mountains, NC has a very hot and humid summer.
This summer temperatures (Charlotte area where I live) were well into the 90's, humidity was very high and the dew point was in the upper 60's to low 70's, which is oppressive.
Winters can be very odd, Christmas last year I think the high was 80 degrees, very uncommon but it happened, and then a few weeks later in January we had an ice storm. Overall, we go through about 2 weeks of very cold weather and then a couple of weeks of mild weather it seems during the winter off and on, and usually one good winter storm.
How cold are the winters compared to like Texas etc,
Hmm. It's rare in central N.C. for it to fail to get above freezing during the daytime. I'd say winters here would be something like Austin. The leaves fall off deciduous trees, and it's brisk and fair, but not usually bitterly cold. You don't have to go too far inland in Texas before you can have continental winters though.
Summer is hot and humid, guaranteed. It will be VERY humid compared to California. Some folks on the board who have lived in both Florida and NC say it's worse than Florida, but I don't know.
In winter, however, nothing is guaranteed. Weather and temps are very erratic. It can be in the 70s or it can be 7. Take a look at the record temps for the area you're thinking of moving to. Here are the average and record temps for Raleigh in December. The record high for Dec in Raleigh is 81 and the record low is 0, but the average high is in the 50s. Averages just don't mean a lot with record highs that high and record lows that low.
It can be sunny and weirdly warm, sunny and cold, rainy and chilly, or it can snow or we can get freezing rain that coats everything with a layer of ice and looks stunningly beautiful until the trees start to break because of the weight and the power lines go down.
I would expect there to be at least a few days each winter where it doesn't get above freezing. You can look at historical data on that. Here's January in Raleigh — just change the year. There were 3 days last Jan where it didn't get above 32 for a high. The lowest low last Jan was 18. The highest high was 70. I'd say that's pretty typical. We had a couple of trace snow events (snow and rain mix of just about one inch was the most precip) overall winter can be very low humidity, but it can also be in the 40s and drizzle rain for a week.
^^ A bit eggagerated. We rarely see single digits here even in January. It's very newsworthy when it happens. It's like talking about frosty mornings in Orange County CA. You might see one every 5 years.
I'll go along with your last paragraph. Occasional mid teens at night are typical. A few days a winter where it doesn't get above freezing during the daylight are too.
My point was the weather can swing wildly in winter in North Carolina and it can. That's no exaggeration, just the facts ma'am, as Joe Friday would say. If I said it could be 95 or -27 in Raleigh in winter that would be an exaggeration, but it CAN be 7 it can be 77. Those are the record temps for December 16th in Raleigh. The coldest day last winter (mid Dec-mid March) was Valentine's Day with a low of 15 and a high of 32. The warmest day was Christmas Eve with a high of 77 and a low of 66 and rain.
In 2015 we had very low temps in Feb. We had a low of 7 on Friday Feb 20 and a high of 26. But the week before on Sunday Feb 8th, the high was 72. You really just never know what the winter will bring in central NC.
Wunderground is a great source for historical weather data. You can plug in any city and use the dropdown menu to change the date/month/year.
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