Читать книгу Afoot and Afield: Portland/Vancouver. A Comprehensive Hiking Guide онлайн

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Welcome to the Pacific “Northwet”: The Local Weather

Anyone who lives in this part of the world knows that there’s no getting around rain. For eight or so months of the year it rains a lot in Portland. But there is much more to the climate story than just precipitation. Each season has its own weather-related quirks, and all the hills, canyons, river valleys, and mountains in our area help to create numerous microclimates. Once you master these local weather idiosyncrasies, you’ll stay drier and have more fun in the outdoors.

Summer in the Pacific Northwest is just about ideal. From mid-July until early October rain is unusual, despite all those stories we tell out-of-staters in an effort to keep them out. This is not to say that we never get clouds in the summer months. In fact, morning clouds are quite common. One of the best times to go hiking is when clouds cover the Willamette Valley. A large percentage of summer days in our region begins with a layer of marine air, which pushes in from the Pacific Ocean carrying low clouds with it. What far too many hikers in Portland and Vancouver fail to realize is that once you climb above about 2000 feet, you leave the clouds and fog behind and enjoy brilliant sunshine. A great aesthetic advantage of hiking in such weather is that you can climb to a viewpoint and look down on the billowy white fog covering the valleys with its delicate fingers that creep through low passes in the ridges. The fog also hides most of the clear-cuts and helps to ensure greater solitude because outdoor lovers in the socked-in Portland/Vancouver lowlands look out their windows, see the low clouds, and wrongly assume that it’s too gloomy to go hiking.