Would you say Portland has a hot summer? (live, moving to)

[belmont22]

Personally I'd say yes it's a "hot" and not a "warm" summer. Average highs of 81F is pretty hot to me. Actually because Portland is slightly more humid, it feels warmer in the summer time than much of coastal California does to me.

July and August can be downright oppressive in the Willamette Valley and many years reach 100F.

[gog8rs]

I lived in Portland last summer and never had to turn on the AC once simply by leaving the windows open at night. Then again, I was raised in the South, where the average summer low was close to Portland's average summer high but far more humid.

[VTHokieFan]

Ha. 81 is nothing

[christiner81]

no

[crisw]

Not compared to the East County of San Diego, where temps went over 90-100 for days on end and it didn't cool down much at night.

[kyled]

How many days a year would you say it gets into the 90s? 100s?

[Copsgirl73]

Nope, but again it depends if you have lived anywere else. My in laws think its sweltering when it hits 85 (yet they dont turn on their AC..weird) but they have lived in Portland forever. I lived in SoCal for a long time before moving to Oregon and Oregon doesnt come close to how hot it got down there at times. The smog never helped either

[wanderbygrace]

Hot, perhaps. Hot and sticky/muggy? Absolutely not. I lived the vast majority of my life in Ohio, only moving here two years ago (this will be my third summer). There is no comparison.

In Ohio, A/C is a necessity, or you are outright miserable for the better part of 3-4 months. Here, A/C is only really needed (and that might even be a stretch) about 1-2 weeks out of a year.

In the Pac-NW, I've found that heat and humidity work in an inverse manner - heat goes up, humidity goes down. Across the Midwest and southeast in the spring/summer/fall - when the heat goes up, the humidity stays high, meaning for very muggy/buggy/yucky days and evenings/nights.

Nights here are perfectly fine w/o A/C, as it cools off so rapidly & the humidity remains fairly low. In OH, FL, TN, IL, etc., you'd still need A/C at night to knock out the warmth AND humidity.

NOTE: I'm a big, hairy guy who doesn't tolerate being warm, well, especially when it's muggy. I love this part of the country.

[wanderbygrace]

Originally Posted by kyled

How many days a year would you say it gets into the 90s? 100s?

The two summers I've been here, it's hit 100 about twice each summer with perhaps ten days in the 90's each year.

Again, though, humidity is down in the 20's, so those 90-100's feel like the upper 70's to most who are from the MW and SE.

[Squidlo]

Portland will hit 100 a few times in the summer 3-5 times. I remember a May day that hit the 100 mark and wasted my favorite azalea and some of my smaller rhodies that were just budding out.

For a local resident with a few years under your belt 100 "is freaking hot as hell". The humidity is again all relative. After being conditioned in south Texas, I reach for my jacket at 70 degrees and laugh at 40% humidity. It can get muggy in Portland. It never lasts too long. We always headed for a lake, stream or river when we knew it would be above 90 degrees for a day or 2.

Portland summers are warm and very pleasant. It just gets hot fast and cools off too fast for my taste. I always just seemed to be getting used to the heat only to have the temps drop off again.