Pac northwest weather VS Midwest weather (Portland, Granite: living in, to move, estate)

[Ccgreif97]

Damn you people are whack. Despite being over 250 miles due north of Detroit in latitude, average temperatures in Portland for January are 41.5 degrees fathrenheit or ~5 celcius compared to detroit’s 25.5 degrees. In northern Michigan at the same latitude as Portland, winters in cities like Mackinaw City average roughly 15 degrees Fahrenheit and snowfall ranges from 80 to 240 inches per year. The coldest day in portland in an entire winter MIGHT be the same temperature as an AVERAGE daytime high temperature for places that far north in the Midwest. There is simply no comparison. For its latitude of 44.6 degrees north, Portland And Oregon as a whole experience extreme temperature anamolies caused by the pacific. Even at high elevations, like Seneca, Oregon in the mountains (5400’ elevation) are considerably warmer than eastern places in the US at the same latitude and at sea level. Best way to show this difference? On a mountain in Maine in the Appalachian trail, Mount Katahdin, the exact same distance north of the equator as Seneca, and at the same elevation, January average temperatures a -4 Fahrenheit, while at that same extreme altitude in Oregon they are a balmy 22.5 degrees. If populated places out east we’re at the same elevation as the west coast’s populated areas, many of them in the northern portions of the US would be too cold to inhabit or even grow food, being above the tree line where permafrost kills off almost all plant life.

[cornsnicker3]

Originally Posted by Kuma

Okay, I keep hearing how bad the winters are in Portland, but I'm from Michigan. I want to know how they compare. I know a guy that moved to Oregon and moved back to the Midwest because he could not handle the winters there. It left me scratching my head. How does it get worse than Michigan? I know it gets dreary but the Midwest isn't exactly sunshine and rainbows in the winter. Are there any Midwest transplants (or anyone for that matter) that can explain this to me?

How does it get worse than Michigan? Minnesota

...just kidding. All jokes aside, here where I live, our winters are frigid and snowy, but we get variation between cloudy and sunny (of course, sunny days are the really cold days. Western PNW winters are perpetual overcast, cloudy, and drizzle for months on end. Snow is pathetically rare. Summers also differ in that we get thunderstorms, rainy days, and sunny days, but with humidity. Of course, Duluth is the anomaly in that our summers are remarkably cool (cooler than Portland's), but most of the Midwest gets a fairly hot and muggy summer. PNW is pretty much dry, hot, and sun all summer long.

The cloudy and overcast can get to people. Add on the fact that being as far north as Minnesota means Winter daylight hours are also low and you have a dark, cloudy, raining scene for months. That bothers some people more than getting a bunch of cold and snow.

[Omegaraptor]

What many people don’t know about Portland climate is that in winter, we get dry east wind events, and it happens more often than people think. These winds come straight off the Gorge and bring relatively cold temps with desert-like humidity. It will dry your skin and face out. If your eyes are sensitive to dry windy conditions, you may even need eyedrops. For some it’s actually better to have overcast than east winds.

Also the rain is an exaggerated stereotype. It doesn’t rain that much in the city itself. Most of the rain here is a sporadic drizzle that takes forever to amount to anything. Downpours are a 10-15 times per year event, and thunderstorms are rare which is a huge contrast from the Midwest. Take away Nov-March and Portland has a semiarid climate. The Midwest gets far more in terms of actual heavy rain events. The real problem is the overcast - it was never the rain. PNW and southeastern Great Lakes (N Ohio, Eastern PA, Upstate NY) are the cloudiest regions of the country.

One thing worth noting is that Portland has more consistent, and in many cases, warmer spring weather. The Midwest can get snow well into April. In fact, parts of the Midwest had a snowstorm just a week ago. A cold snap in April in Portland will most likely not be below 50 for a high.

[JonathanLB]

It certainly rains a ton in Portland, whether it’s actually amounting to a large volume of water is besides the point that it rains nearly every day and when it doesn’t rain, you swear it did because it was cloudy all day long. Don’t get me wrong I guess I’d take that over snow all winter long, just because of the hassle of that, but the constant gray skies and rain are too depressing for me personally. It’s the main reason we are moving, spent 31 years of my life in Portland total. I don’t think it’s as bad even in a year, but it’s the year after year of feeling like you barely get any summer, for me it feels like being pushed under water and just when you come up for air, you get pushed back under too fast to recover your breath.

[Minervah]

For me, although I am not a fan of a lot of sunshine, I really like it when the sun appears during the cold winter days as it often does in the Midwest. It boosts people's spirits and everyone smiles even when there is snow on the ground.

[Oklazona Bound]

I guess I will update this thread. As someone who has lived in Portland and Chicago I will say neither the Pac NW nor the Midwest has decent weather.


Portland: Too many dreary cool months. The Portland crud. Where you have a runny nose and feel like you are coming down with something for months. Summers. If this summer is any indication of the future the one good attribute in the PNW might never be the same. Plus you have the wildfires.



The midwest. Way too cold in the winter. But you do have more variety. More of a chance of sunshine in the winter even though its probably cold. Summers are not bad. Spring and fall probably better in the midwest. Too much gloom in the PNW during those months.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by Oklazona Bound

.........I will say neither the Pac NW nor the Midwest has decent weather.........

If you want to live in the USA and want really wonderful weather year round, you move to Southern California between San Diego and Santa Barbara, within 6-8 miles of the coastline. You know, after you win one of those mega-million lotteries and are looking for a nice place to live, because that is what it is going to cost you to live there.


Other than that, you will have to settle for some season of the year where the weather doesn't meet your heart's desire.


(Or Hawaii is nice if you are rich enough to afford to run air-conditioning, because it is rather warm year round)

[CARas2020]

Originally Posted by Kuma

Okay, I keep hearing how bad the winters are in Portland, but I'm from Michigan. I want to know how they compare. I know a guy that moved to Oregon and moved back to the Midwest because he could not handle the winters there. It left me scratching my head. How does it get worse than Michigan? I know it gets dreary but the Midwest isn't exactly sunshine and rainbows in the winter. Are there any Midwest transplants (or anyone for that matter) that can explain this to me?

Portland weather is DULL. We rarely get any thunderstorms, or snow. Once in a while we may get a snow dump. it rains and is gloomy in the winter but absolutely the most boring weather in the US.

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by CARas2020

Portland weather is DULL. We rarely get any thunderstorms, or snow. Once in a while we may get a snow dump. it rains and is gloomy in the winter but absolutely the most boring weather in the US.

Disagree. I've lived in Portland and found the weather fairly active. IMHO the region with the dullest weather is southern CA. Grew up there. Partly sunny to sunny year round, just hotter in summer. Hardly any seasonal change at all to begin with and the local weather pattern can stay basically the same for months. Even when there is a "storm" it hardly meets the definition. I detested how boring it was and couldn't wait to leave.

[texasdiver]

Having traded time between the Pacific Northwest and the upper-Midwest during earlier parts of my life, I have concluded that the main difference between the two during winter is not blue vs gray. It is green vs gray.

Both the upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest have long dreary winters. And yes, the Pacific Northwest tends to have more dark gray cloudy and drizzly days. But if you fly back and forth in the winter what strikes you most is not the skies, it's the vegetation. The Pacific Northwest has a much higher percentage of evergreen foliage in both the mountains and urban areas, so it stays MUCH MUCH more green year-round. Towns like Chicago or Minneapolis or Pittsburgh are largely surrounded by deciduous forests and the streetscapes and parks are largely filled with deciduous trees so there is barely a speck of green to be seen from November until May. By contrast, the Pacific Northwest stays exceedingly green year-round due to all the evergreen trees and the types of grass that are grown here stay green year-round too, especially during the winter. Anyone getting off the plane at PDX after spending a winter in Chicago will immediately notice how much more dramatically green it is.

Here are some typical Portland park landscapes in the middle of winter:





Here is Lewis & Clark College in Portland in mid-winter



By contrast, here are comparable Chicago park landscapes in the middle of winter without a spec of green to be seen





And here is Northwestern University in winter



It's not blue vs gray skies winter skies, it's green vs gray winter landscapes.