About Oregon's many "cloudy" days (Salem, Medford: transplants, how much) - (OR) - City-Data Forum

Oregonbeachlover · 06-07-2008, 06:45 PM

I've been reading posts here and I decided that I would add my 2 cents worth. I grew up in sunny California, but I have lived in Oregon for 30 years now. I spend most of my weekends in Lincoln City on the beach, but I live in Salem...I plan on retiring on the central Oregon coast...Anyway, I have lived through many seasons in Oregon...both in the valley and on the beach. Yes, we get lots of rain in the valley and beaches....hence all the unmatched beauty we have. Yes, the coast can be very drizzly and gray, but it can change very fast and we can have sunny days anytime. Of course, on the beach, Sept./Oct. are the superior months....we can have short-sleeve weather on the beach and none of the summer wind. Salem is very temperate.

About all of the "cloudy days" I have been reading about....yes we have lots of that. But, many of them are clouds and blue sky mixed, which are to me the most beautiful days ever! I love the cloudy days. I'm looking out the window right now...weather says "cloudy" and I see lots of clouds...and blue sky. Love it!! I actually do not like boring skies without clouds. So, I think the "reports" can be deceiving.

Anyway, I am not an Oregon native, but I can honestly say that I think Oregon is the most beautiful place on earth. I love the diversity of the climates. If you don't like rain, there is the eastern part which is desert. Besides the ocean, there are so many rivers and lakes. Wallowa Lake and Crater Lake are spectacular too.

Oregold · 06-07-2008, 09:12 PM

Yes I agree. It's the most wonderful place I've ever seen. There is all that green in western Oregon and a whole different place in the eastern parts of the state. It's a great place to travel around in.

mamh · 06-07-2008, 10:10 PM

Beachlover, thank you saying the weather is great even when its cold and rainy..We moved up from Ca 5 years ago and love it..The weather is never an issue with us...Just don't understand why people complain about the gloom so much...
The rain is makes oregon-oregon
Have a good week everyone

haggardhouseelf · 06-08-2008, 04:04 PM

Love this positive thread! We are transplants as well - originally from Texas but have also lived in California and Washington state. We have done quite a bit of traveling around the country and have experienced other countries as well... and honestly I believe we live in our own little paradise here in Oregon. Love it and hope that we never have to move or live anywhere else, ever. It's a wonderful place to grow and raise our family, and my husband and I are even looking forward to all the things we'll do together just he and I once our children are grown and we're old people.

Metlakatla · 06-08-2008, 05:19 PM

Some people complain about the rain but love the greenery--can't have it both ways though. We even had snow in the Willamette Pass just a couple of nights ago

I live in the Cascades and in another part of the country where it rains around 200 inches a year (seriously); though I think that more of my time is going to be spent in Oregon in the future.

I am lucky enough to have been born here, but it's never become commonplace to me.

Steve97415 · 06-09-2008, 02:48 PM

Well, I've observed before that there are "thermophobes" (people who hate warm weather) and "gloomophobes" (people who can't abide constantly gray skies). Thermophobes seem to need green scenery around them and don't resent the overcast: it shields them from the earth's source of heat -- their enemy, the sun. Gloomophobes seem to need sunlight and blue skies above them more than they need verdant environs. They are likely to find beauty in the sienna, coral and ochre hues of Mediterranean and desert landscapes and would not count warmth and dryness among the worst possible climatic hardships. Count me in the latter category. While it certainly is true that the Oregon coast can have a number of hours with beautiful blue sky, entirely nice days are rare, and there is going to be a law of averages problem for those who require them on a regular basis.

There is a relationship between the amount of light that falls on the retina and the production of seratonin, the brain's "feel good" chemical. In certain particularly sensitive individuals, the result of long-term light privation can result in a recognized form of clinical depression -- seasonal affective disorder. The effect is cumulative and can be quite debilitating as the years go by. It is very common in western Oregon, particularly on the coast. Others suffer from a lesser and more immediate response to less-than-sunny conditions commonly referred to as "gray sky dysphoria". Either one can be a significant livability issue.

According to NOAA, the Oregon coast has some of the most persistently overcast skies in the continental U.S., ranging from 236 days a year in Brookings to 239 days a year in Astoria. That's the number of days per year with less than 10% sunlight. After 7 years in Brookings, I'm more than ready to leave. My wife and I are wearing out the highway between here and Medford in search of relief from the fog and overcast. Most of the people we know that are happy here are dyed-in-the-wool summer haters. I think you almost have to be in order to live here because there is no time of the year that resembles a conventional summer. And it is that characteristic -- feeling cheated out of summer -- that separates living on the coast from living in the valleys of western Oregon. At least in the valley you have an eventual payoff for all the gloom -- four months of sunny dry weather that constitute some of the most enjoyable summer conditions anywhere. For most people, the coast is a better place to visit than to live, and I can't wait to sell my place here and return to the light. So how much stock should you place in the "gloom issue"? Recognize your own climate preferences and follow the Bard's advice: to thine ownself be true.

Oregonbeachlover · 06-09-2008, 04:34 PM

Sorry, I don't agree with you Steve. I have had a house in Lincoln City for over 6 years now. I am about 60 yards from the ocean. Yes, this winter has been bad (wind too!), but I look around the country and feel lucky. During a winter about 2 or 3 years ago, many times I was walking on the beach without a jacket. What I can say from my experience is that weather can change very fast at the coast. You can have a gray pouring rain day and quickly get bright sun. The cloud formations are like nothing I have ever seen. The beauty I see on the Oregon coast literally takes my breath away. And...the weather can change very, very fast, unlike the weather in the valley, so it is exciting. There are many cloudy days, but so many of those days can also have beautiful sun breaks. We can have glorious sunny days any time of the year. I happen to have lots of windows, so my house can be very bright. You do have to do what makes you happy and to each his own. I was just defending "cloudy days" because I think it seems to have a negative connotation and I wanted to clarify that.

sav · 06-10-2008, 08:00 AM

"In certain particularly sensitive individuals, the result of long-term light privation can result in a recognized form of clinical depression -- seasonal affective disorder. The effect is cumulative and can be quite debilitating as the years go by"

Rather than turn it into a debate as to whether or not the coast is cloudy or not (that seems to have been done many times), a more thoughtful approach seems to be to address the severe lack of light sensitivity some people seem to experience. I lived in McMinnville for 4 years and had a very difficult time w/ what I perceived as a lack of light from about mid October to mid June. I found that it was getting worse for me over time and that I really lived for the summer months. Our last summer there (2007) was unusually cloudy and rainy, even in July, and one morning when I woke up to rain I started crying-NOT NORMAL. We now live in eastern idaho, and while we are having an unusually "cloudy" spring/early summer, it really doesn't faze me the way it did in Oregon. That being said, there were so many amazing things about Oregon that I loved but I could not get over hte hump w/ the seasonal affective disorder and found it getting progressively more severe. Just my two cents.

PS One person told me it took him about 6-7 yrs to adapt. Yikes! My sanity didn't have another few years...

Oregonbeachlover · 06-10-2008, 08:56 AM

What really might be at issue are emotional issues going on in a person's life at the moment? I think a lot depends on that. I also think that Oregon's weather really gets a bum rap. (I have lived here 30 years and I lived in sunny California for 22 years)

sav · 06-10-2008, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oregonbeachlover

What really might be at issue are emotional issues going on in a person's life at the moment? I think a lot depends on that. I also think that Oregon's weather really gets a bum rap. (I have lived here 30 years and I lived in sunny California for 22 years)

Respectfully disagree that it all has to do with emotional issues in people's lives. That is why there is a specific diagnosis seasonal affective disorder. Seems to affect some people but not others. Did not affect my husband.