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Inland Pacific NW is an absolute climate abomination. Every time I look at the temps during the summer they’re in some kind of heatwave near or above 100, and then when I look during the winter its mostly 40’s with rain, maybe 20’s in a powerful front. It just doesnt make sense at all considering the latitude. I feel pretty far north in Milwaukee and the climate sure corresponds. But these locations are at the same latitude as far northern Maine and Minnesota which are near borderline subarctic. Tennessee and even northern Georgia seem to have colder winters and a similar amount or less hot days in the summer, plus they get much more rain to cool things off. I know in terms of mean annual temp the inland Pacific NW is cooler than the inland South but its probably not much, especially some places like Walla Walla or Lewiston.
Inland Pacific NW is an absolute climate abomination. Every time I look at the temps during the summer they’re in some kind of heatwave near or above 100, and then when I look during the winter its mostly 40’s with rain, maybe 20’s in a powerful front. It just doesnt make sense at all considering the latitude. I feel pretty far north in Milwaukee and the climate sure corresponds. But these locations are at the same latitude as far northern Maine and Minnesota which are near borderline subarctic. Tennessee and even northern Georgia seem to have colder winters and a similar amount or less hot days in the summer, plus they get much more rain to cool things off. I know in terms of mean annual temp the inland Pacific NW is cooler than the inland South but its probably not much, especially some places like Walla Walla or Lewiston.
I think they are wonderful over-performers for their latitude. If you live in the inland PNW you still have access to cold and snow in the mountains but you don't have to shovel it. In the summer, it's glorious white water rafting and swimming kind of weather with no nasty humidity to deal with.
Areas where Europe is considerably warmer are between 50N and 55N as well as north of 58N
In the very far north into the Arctic Circle, differences increase. The northernmost town in Alaska and the northernmost town in Norway (excl Svalbard which are way north) are almost exact the same latitude, 71°N.
Inland Pacific NW is an absolute climate abomination. Every time I look at the temps during the summer they’re in some kind of heatwave near or above 100, and then when I look during the winter its mostly 40’s with rain, maybe 20’s in a powerful front. It just doesnt make sense at all considering the latitude. I feel pretty far north in Milwaukee and the climate sure corresponds. But these locations are at the same latitude as far northern Maine and Minnesota which are near borderline subarctic. Tennessee and even northern Georgia seem to have colder winters and a similar amount or less hot days in the summer, plus they get much more rain to cool things off. I know in terms of mean annual temp the inland Pacific NW is cooler than the inland South but its probably not much, especially some places like Walla Walla or Lewiston.
It depends on which side of the Cascades you’re talking about
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Originally Posted by tij
Does the pacific NW have more sunshine than NW Europe primarily because of its summers? It seemed that summers were sunnier, but winters were less sunny in the PacNW than in Europe, at least for the Pacific facade (I wouldn't consider Boise to really be comparable to anywhere in France, as that geography simply does not exist....)
The PNW (Washington, Idaho, and Oregon) is really two regions, east and west, that are divided by the Cascade Mountains, with two different kinds of weather. Especially Washington State changes dramatically the further east one goes. The weather in coastal Western Washington is very different from the weather in Central and Eastern Washington. By the time you get to Eastern Washington, you've gone from the ocean and rain forests into the Cascade Mountains, down through cattle ranch lands, into and back out of agricultural fruit country, across the Columbia River and up to wheatfields and wineries' grape vineyards, to a desert climate with rock mesas. The only reason there is agriculture in Central and Eastern Washington is because of the federally subsidized dams that provide irrigation. Without dams on the rivers providing irrigation, almost all of Central and Eastern Washington is desert with four distinct seasons (cold, snowy winters, albeit less snow than there used to be thanks to climate change, with a mix of overcast and sunny days; warm, sunny springs; hot, sunny summers; sunny, cooler but still warm autumns).
I don't get why the creation of farmland would cause more clouds to form. Sounds like anecdotal evidence to me.
I grew up east of the Cascades. The land was lush with agriculture and irrigation from the damming of the rivers and it was like that before I was born, yet we had mostly sunny, cold, snow-covered winters; beautiful, warm, sunny springs; hot, sunny summers; and warm to cool, sunny autumns.
The weather has since changed. Now there are more overcast days in the winter. There were overcast days when I was a kid, but not as many. We had many bright, sunny days that were briskly cold enough to keep the snow on the ground. Now my mother gets bummed in the winter because it feels too much like the overcast winters of the Puget Sound, where she hated living for a short while before booking back to Central Washington where she was born and raised. She'd hated the gray and gloom of the Puget Sound eight-and-a-half to nine months of the year.
When I was a kid in Central Washington, we didn't see the ground between sometime in November until spring. Just like in Alaska, snow tires automatically went on everyone's vehicles every November. For sure by the first of Dec, we were blanketed with snow that stayed until spring. It was like that in Eastern Washington, too. Now there is a lot less snow.
The first year I noticed was in Feb of 2001. I was back visiting and there was almost no snow on the ground, in February! I asked my relatives about it and they said it had been like that for a few years, far less snow than they expected. Those relatives were born and raised in Central and North-Central Washington, as were their parents and grandparents. It hasn't changed since then. There's still less snow every winter.
Nevertheless, the hypothesis that overcast days and weather changes are from irrigation is just ignorance, which isn't hard to come by east of the mountains or in rural Western Washington. Conservative rednecks just don't want to admit they're experiencing climate change, but the lack of snow is from manmade climate change, just like it is everywhere, including Alaska now, too.
The weather in the Puget Sound is also changing. It's actually getting better! That's not a good thing in the long run, but it's hard to not like the long, balmy autumns (Indian summers) and the warmer, drier springs and summers I've experienced there in the last several years. This last spring Puget Sounders were surprised by a much hotter spring, hotter than they ever used to get in the summers.
The weather in the Puget Sound is also changing. It's actually getting better! That's not a good thing in the long run, but it's hard to not like the long, balmy autumns (Indian summers) and the warmer, drier springs and summers I've experienced there in the last several years. This last spring Puget Sounders were surprised by a much hotter spring, hotter than they ever used to get in the summers.
Last few years summers were sunny and dry...not this summer though.
I don't get why the creation of farmland would cause more clouds to form. Sounds like anecdotal evidence to me. Doesn't Eastern WA get inversions in the winter which can obscure the sky for days at a time?
I grew up east of the Cascades. The weather has changed. There are more overcast days in the winter. There were overcast days when I was a kid, but not as many. We had many bright, sunny days that were briskly cold enough to keep the snow on the ground.
When I was a kid, we didn't see the ground between sometime in November until spring. Just like in Alaska, snow tires automatically went on everyone's vehicles every November. For sure by the first of Dec we were blanketed with snow that stayed until spring. Now there is a lot less snow.
The first year I noticed was in Feb of 2001. I was back visiting and there was almost no snow on the ground, in February! I asked my relatives about it and they said it had been like that for a few years, far less snow than they expected. Those relatives were born and raised in Central and North-Central Washington, as were their parents and grandparents. It hasn't changed. There's still less snow every winter.
Nevertheless, the hypothesis that overcast days and weather changes are from irrigation is just ignorance, which isn't hard to come by east of the mountains or in rural Western Washington. Conservative rednecks just don't want to admit they're experiencing climate change, but the lack of snow is from manmade climate change, just like it is everywhere, including Alaska now, too.
The weather in the Puget Sound is also changing. It's actually getting better! That's not a good thing in the long run, but it's hard to not like the long, balmy autumns (Indian summers) and the warmer, drier springs and summers I've experienced there in the last several years.
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It depends on which side of the Cascades you’re talking about
