A climate question please ... (living in, area, averages)

[Aggie]

Howdy. First, let me say that I have never been to Oregon and that I'm a curious person as pertains to climate. I was just looking at the western regional climate center and found a state map of Oregon precipitation averages. I think I've copied it:



Does the rainy, cloudy winter weather that I hear about basically coincide with the eastern part of the state out to the orange/red marked areas? Thanks.

[JohnPaul]

the western half...

most of eastern oregon is high plains desert, north eastern in the blues mountains is nice,....but ya.

[Aggie]

Originally Posted by JohnPaul

the western half...

Sorry ... I don't understand your answer.

[lauramc27]

He means, as you are looking at the map you copied, the right half (eastern)(orange) is mostly high desert, so not much rain. The left half (western) is the part of the state that gets the most rain.

[Aggie]

Originally Posted by lauramc27

He means, as you are looking at the map you copied, the right half (eastern)(orange) is mostly high desert, so not much rain. The left half (western) is the part of the state that gets the most rain.

Ok ... I don't think I'm articulating my question very well ... my apologies. Let me try this: Does the entire area that shows more rain, yellow and above, have the rainy/cloudy winter weather? Or, does some of it get the greater rainfall while not having the long cloudy winters?

[JohnPaul]

yellow, green, blue = long rainy winter areas...last year in my area it was a 8.5 month long winter of consistent rain and clouds....nearly zero sunshine...not joking.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by Aggie

Ok ... I don't think I'm articulating my question very well ... my apologies. Let me try this: Does the entire area that shows more rain, yellow and above, have the rainy/cloudy winter weather? Or, does some of it get the greater rainfall while not having the long cloudy winters?

Yes, the yellow and green is all the rainy/cloudy Winter Weather.

[Bendite]

Generally speaking, the precipitation (rain and/or snow and wintry mixes) in Oregon falls between late fall and late spring leaving summers and early fall to be the driest part of the year. That said, it rains during the summer and fall sometimes too and parts of the coast in particular get precipitation a lot of the year.

[Silverfall]

In order to get rain in the winter you need cloud cover to warm up the atmosphere otherwise you would get snow.

[Brenda-by-the-sea]

Don't try and make inferences about percentage of sunshine or impact of winter gloom based on rainfall totals...you can have lots of cloud cover without precipitation.

You found the WRCC, but it sounds like you didn't really make your way to the part with the find the maps you needed. Go here and look at sky cover, hours of sunshine and percentage sunshine. Look at the individual months, not just the annual totals. Compare the numbers you see with those from where you live now and you'll get an idea of what you'd be facing. As a general rule, there's a winter sunshine penalty for living in northern latitudes, no matter what the precipitation cycle is like. General Climate Information