Does the Portland area get much severe weather? (Troutdale: power lines, purchase)

[vaughanwilliams]

Just wondering if Portland has many days of unusual weather patterns. Where I live, there's over 200 days of 80+ degree temps. with endless high humidity( 60-70%), six months of hurricane season, severe thunder storms any time of year which can spawn fairly good size tornadoes and flooding rain and deadly lightning storms (many people a year are struck, several die or are maimed for life) . I guess with the frequency of this type of weather, it shouldn't be considered unusual, but I do.
I was born near the Oregon/Ca. border but left as a child and really don't remember much about the state. Portland sounds like a great metro area.

[Sign]

Originally Posted by vaughnwilliams

Just wondering if Portland has many days of unusual weather patterns. Where I live, there's over 200 days of 80+ degree temps. with endless high humidity( 60-70%), six months of hurricane season, severe thunder storms any time of year which can spawn fairly good size tornadoes and flooding rain and deadly lightning storms (many people a year are struck, several die or are maimed for life) . I guess with the frequency of this type of weather, it shouldn't be considered unusual, but I do.
I was born near the Oregon/Ca. border but left as a child and really don't remember much about the state. Portland sounds like a great metro area.

Portland RARELY sees "severe weather" in the sense of thunderstorms/tornadoes, etc.
BUT......Portland can have issues from persistent heavy rains.....that often lead to muslides and some flooding of rivers/streams. Also, Portland CAN get hammered with a wicked windstorm, once in a while. Snow/ice are problems on occasion......like last Christmas time, when the Portland-metro area was blasted with a big snowstorm, ice and the resulting power outages from downed lines.
The city came to a standstill.
Winter storms like THIS one........are quite rare for Portland and are usually confined to higher elevations (the Cascades, Mt. Hood, etc.).

For the most part......Portland has a very mild climate with many cloudy days and plenty of drip to downpour.......especially from late October-April or even later.
Short-lived heat waves occur in the summer when temps. can go above 100 for usually.....less than a week straight.
This past summer was HOT and Portland recorded a record # of 25 days (or something?) of high temps. over 90 degrees.
Lightning is VERY rare but does occur now and then.
You'll probably miss lightning......if your from Florida (lightning capital of America).

[vaughanwilliams]

I won't miss lightning at all- it's nasty, wicked stuff to be around. I live for the rare overcast days that Florida has-I've had enough blistering sunny days to last a lifetime. They're way over rated.

[hml1976]

Nope, not anything like what you've been used to. We moved here from Nashville and its just not even in the same world as far as storms/tornadoes etc go. The few times there have been actual thunderstorms its been amusing for us to see everyone's reaction to what amounted to hardly anything.

Now, that was a heck of a blizzard last year but I hear it was a freak thing. Oh and the heat isn't the same kind of heat so its not nearly as oppressive as the south.

[Sign]

Originally Posted by hml1976

Nope, not anything like what you've been used to. We moved here from Nashville and its just not even in the same world as far as storms/tornadoes etc go. The few times there have been actual thunderstorms its been amusing for us to see everyone's reaction to what amounted to hardly anything.

Now, that was a heck of a blizzard last year but I hear it was a freak thing. Oh and the heat isn't the same kind of heat so its not nearly as oppressive as the south.

So true of Portlanders.

2 or 3 lightning bolts and some noisy rumbles of thunder.........is the BIG story at the water cooler the next day.
Lightning is SO rare to them.....they truly freak out a tad bit.

[figmalt]

Severe is all relative. Portland does not get the kind of windstorms I experienced in Idaho as a kid, nor the drenching rain and thunderstorms, blizzards, and so on. Flooding is not all that unusual, and mudslides as mentioned above are part of that. Because the rain doesn't require trees to put down deep roots, the windstorms here can cause a lot of damage through downed trees and power lines, however infrequent they may be.

[j50wells]

It's rare. People get scared when there's a little bit of lightning. I'm from Palmer Divide in Colorado, one of the most lightning prone spots in the United States. From late May to mid-September we get an afternoon thunderstorm six days out of the week. I moved to Portland last summer. I've heard thunder maybe three times in the last year.
We don't get snow either. Well, some people call it snow. It's usually only and inch or two. I'm used to getting 18 inches of snow overnight, and then some blizzards in March and April. Weather in Portland is boring, but the trees and flowers and green grass are so beautiful that you almost forget about the boring weather. Rain, rain, rain is what one sees here. 50 inches a year out here on the east side in Troutdale. Some say 50 inches isn't much considering that the southeast gets 50-60 inches also. But do they get a tenth of an inch of rain an hour for hours on end? No. They get 3 inches of rain in one hour and then the sun comes back out. We've never had 3 inches or rain in one hour in Portland. Maybe three inches of rain in a 90 hour continuous cycle. The rain falls lightly and is monotonous. But it has it's bonuses. Some of the most successful writers in the USA are from the Pacific Northwest, and for good reason. In the dreary winters there's nothing to do but read and write. Portland is the magazine purchase capital of the USA.

[Tipsy McStagger]

Holy thread necropsy.

[Mini-apple-less]

Depends on your definition of severe. Winters tend to just be wet and chilly, but you get 2 weeks to a month total of dry cold windy weather of lows in the 20s and highs in the 30s with wind chill making it "feel" about 10 degrees colder.

Summers are various. Some summers in Portland only have a handful of hot days, others you can have weeks straight of hot weather with 85+ degree highs that at times can be sticky with dewpoints over 60F. Nothing a Floridian can't handle, but keep in mind there's a good chance you'll have to endure it without air conditioning.

It's rare, but not unheard of for it to be in the upper 90s with a dewpoint close to 70F in Portland. T-storms and hail aren't common but happen a few times a year.

[bna210]

does the portland oregon/vancouver washington area
use outdoor warning sirens of any kind?
i live in nebr and we have alot,
they are annoying
im moving to portland next year,
hopefully portland doesnt use them