Climate
Characterized by cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers, the Willamette Valley's climate is relatively mild throughout the year. It has been described as Mediterranean, though somewhat cooler and wetter. Most valley precipitation arrives as rain, about half of which falls between December and February. Growing seasons are long, averaging 150 to 180 days per year in the lowlands to about 110 to 130 days at elevations above 800 feet (240 m).
Precipitation varies considerably from place to place within the valley. Average annual totals range from less than 40 inches (1,000 mm) at low elevations to more than 80 inches (2,000 mm) in the foothills of the Cascade and Coast ranges. Eugene, at 359 feet (109 m) above sea level, receives 46 inches (1,200 mm) a year, while Portland, just 338 feet (103 m) lower, receives only 37 inches (940 mm). Annual snow accumulations at low elevations average 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 cm) per year, mostly from December through February.
Severe storms are rare, although ice storms sometimes occur when cold air from the state's interior flows west through the Columbia Gorge and into the northern part of the valley. Weather systems sometimes bring high winds to the northern region of the valley. Average cloud cover can exceed 70 percent in winter but drops to less than 15 percent in summer.
High temperatures range on average from about 45 °F (7 °C) in winter to about 80 °F (27 °C) or slightly higher in summer. Average lows are generally around 30 °F (−1 °C) or slightly higher in winter and around 55 °F (13 °C) or slightly higher in summer. Temperatures exceed 90 °F (32 °C) about 10 to 25 times a year on average, and temperatures lower than 5 °F (−15 °C) occur only about once every 25 years.
Read more about this topic: Willamette Valley
Famous quotes containing the word climate:
“Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull,
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
Killing their fruit with frowns?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Certainly parents play a crucial role in the lives of individuals who are intellectually gifted or creatively talented. But this role is not one of active instruction, of teaching children skills,... rather, it is support and encouragement parents give children and the intellectual climate that they create in the home which seem to be the critical factors.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“Nobody is so constituted as to be able to live everywhere and anywhere; and he who has great duties to perform, which lay claim to all his strength, has, in this respect, a very limited choice. The influence of climate upon the bodily functions ... extends so far, that a blunder in the choice of locality and climate is able not only to alienate a man from his actual duty, but also to withhold it from him altogether, so that he never even comes face to face with it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)