View Full Version : Pacific Northwest for Retirement / Adjusting to the Weather?
try2bfrugal
6-1-13, 10:39pm
I noticed many positive comments about living in Oregon and Washington in the recent thread on where people live. I think Oregon would be a perfect retirement spot for us except I am not sure about the rain. If I'd moved to Oregon directly from the Midwest and traded snow for rain, I am sure I'd love it. But I am not sure about moving from some place where it is sunny and warm most days.
I do like the home prices in Oregon and I am sure I would love the scenery and outdoor activities. But I am just not sure if I could get used to the weather.
For those of you who enjoy the Pacific Northwest, did you move from a sunny or desert climate? Was it difficult to adjust?
It's less rainy east of the Cascades, where there is lots of high desert. A lot of people like the Bend, Oregon area. And in a NW corner of Washington, there's Sequim, which is dry much of the year.
I am a native PNWerner, so don't know what it is like for people moving to Western WA or OR. Having spent much of my life there, though, I can say that the period between November-March is the rainiest/greyest/darkest and probably the time of the year that most non-natives have the hardest time adjusting to. Dec-Feb can be particularly challenging, with limited daylight, everpresent cloud cover, and a lot of not very nice weather. BUT, that being said, at least a few times every winter a high pressure system will roll in and you'll get a few days of BRILLIANT sun. Mt. Rainier looks like a snowcone -- if you can get a glimpse of it at sunrise or sunset, it makes the whole drizzly winter worthwhile.
mid-July-early October typically have much less rain. There can be stretches of several weeks when it doesn't rain at all. Summer temperatures rarely get over 90 F, and when it is that hot it is dry -- no hot humid weather in the Seattle area at least.
We have family in both the Portland metro area and in Bend. I love Portland - it is one of my very favorite U.S. cities. The metro area is quite expensive, has a lot of traffic, and receives a lot of rain from about October through May. For those reasons, I probably would not select it as a retirement location. Bend is a small city and, as noted above, at the edge of where high desert meets the Cascades. It has everything our relatives need and they really like it (they moved there for retirement). The summer days can get quite hot, and the dry climate takes some adjustment particularly in summer, if one has not lived in desert before. The main drawback of Bend that I see is that it is costly to travel to/from, because of the small airport (in Redmond). There is a shuttle van that goes to/from PDX, which is a slighly less expensive airport to travel to/from.
AmeliaJane
6-2-13, 10:14am
I have a lot of family in Oregon and Washington. The description of Portland applies to Seattle also. You might also look at eastern Washington if you aren't extremely location-focused--Oregon has been wrestling with tax issues for years that have affected the budget for libraries, parks, schools, etc. The above posters are correct that eastern and western Washington and Oregon are amazing different climate-wise. The high desert gets very hot in the summer (I spent a summer there and didn't mind it because it actually is comfortable at night and in the shade) and colder in the winter. Some people find the snow and cold too much for them in winter (Bend is a ski town) but my New England born family find it moderate compared to Maine or Vermont.
try2bfrugal
6-2-13, 12:08pm
Thanks for all the comments. We are still searching for our ultimate, ideal retirement location. We have thought of Oregon with a condo some place warmer and sunnier in the winter as a possibility.
In retirement our Social Security and pension income will be the same no matter where we live, so financially it makes sense to live some place lower cost and Oregon fits the bill on that front. Maybe the rain and cooler temps would be refreshing.
Yesterday it was over 100 degrees here in Northern Cal. My coconut oil turned to liquid inside the house because the room temperature was above its melting point. :)
People from California won't like the weather here. It's always foggy, rainy, and windy. Moss grows on your shoes when you walk down the street. The locals all smell funny, and eat odd foods.
Best to move to a warmer place. Trust me.
:-)
Californians. They always want to pull up the drawbridge after they get here. http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/remake/biggrin.gif http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/remake/cool.gif
Californians. They always want to pull up the drawbridge after they get here. http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/remake/biggrin.gif http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/remake/cool.gif
I was born in Maine. I just couldn't convince The Family that a windswept rocky island in the Atlantic was The Plan, so we compromised on here :-)
Plus, we have no drawbridge to my PNW location. I just changed the county code to forbid cross-ocean bridges, and the bridge over on the mainland just got destroyed by an oversized truck.
Neener :-)
I was born in Maine. I just couldn't convince The Family that a windswept rocky island in the Atlantic was The Plan, so we compromised on here :-)
Plus, we have no drawbridge to my PNW location. I just changed the county code to forbid cross-ocean bridges, and the bridge over on the mainland just got destroyed by an oversized truck.
Neener :-)
LOL!!
It is possible to live affordably in the PNW, though perhaps not in Seattle. Some of the smaller burgs, like Mt. Vernon, Bellingham (nice proximity to the Canadian border), Lacey (proximate to Tacoma), and other south King County towns, still with access to the Big City amenities. Bremerton, across the water via ferry, is nice. Burien, just south of Seattle, is an amazing little progressive town with a very forward thinking Mayor, great community theatre, and an easy jaunt into Seattle.
I LOVE the weather! As a gardener, the cool rainy days are fantastic for growing food. Not so much corn, tomatoes, eggplants,etc. More like greens, peas, strawberries, pippin & stone fruits, raspberries. We have a maritime climate, and what thrives in England will thrive here. We have access to islands, mountains, and desert all in under two hours drive. It's a beautiful place.
Come visit. Come in early - mid September to fall in love, and again in February to make sure you can weather the dark times. It rarely snows, rarely freezes, rarely gets too hot. Nothing to shovel in the winter! Many folks wear Birkenstocks year round here... :) I love it.
I thought the drawbridge spanned a moat across the California-Oregon border (stocked with giant Pacific octopods).
My beloved is one of those rare native Californians, and he was keen on being the last of his kind to emigrate.
I take the contrarian approach on weather. Here in Wisconsin, the harsh climate means I get to live among people who cope with difficulties rather than flee them.
ApatheticNoMore
6-2-13, 2:32pm
People from California won't like the weather here. It's always foggy, rainy, and windy. Moss grows on your shoes when you walk down the street.
I suspect there's some truth to that as I am the type of person that gets depressed after a few overcast days in a row (I know we need rain and stuff and so rain is good, it still doesn't change the fact it makes me depressed) and my mood in winter compared to summer is vastly different (on the other hand on the long days of summer I get so hyper I have problems sleeping). So S.A.D., yea I seem to be acutely sensitive to light if I'm getting S.A.D. in southern california. On the other hand there is much I don't like here and the Seattle area is beautiful. :)
I think you cope with plenty of difficulties here, I dont' think it's an easy place to live in any way shape of form (so in WI the weather would be vastly worse, unbelievable horribly and a cold I have never had to deal with, nor do I know how to drive in snow, but everything else would probably be much easier if I could only motivate myself to ever actually leave the house to do anything in that horrible weather! Hmm). The weather is one of the few decent points here - maybe the sunshine is health insurance as the vitamin D will guarantee a lifetime of good health. I'm hoping so :) I'm offsetting that "sunshine tax" see ... But still I have to be careful about the sun, I can't be outside as much as I want to be outside here in summer, I'd fry.
Positives = Weather
Negative = Weather.
We rarely get the extremes in weather - we get rain, but not like in the south. It will rain heavy all day and we will get 1.5 inches. Nothing like the 5 inches in 3 hours, etc. we hear about in other parts of the country.
Lots of cloudy, dizzzle days - can be depressing. Eastern Oregon is beautiful, much drier, but more isolated. Fire dangers.
I have a "few years" to think out this, but my ideal would be to spend part of the winter away from the PNW where I can feel the sunshine and warmth - it recharges my batteries! ;)
...
Lots of cloudy, dizzzle days - can be depressing. Eastern Oregon is beautiful, much drier, but more isolated. Fire dangers. ...
I've only been in Bend for work, and I wasn't around long enough to appreciate it, but it gets rave reviews from friends. I can't imagine living there though, because it's too landlocked and in the middle of nowhere. And I prefer green landscape to brown. As was previously mentioned, air travel is problematic (puddle-jumper prop jets stick in my memory) and there's no Amtrak--you're limited to a bus connection to Portland.
I take the contrarian approach on weather. Here in Wisconsin, the harsh climate means I get to live among people who cope with difficulties rather than flee them.
LOL!! It's not about coping with difficulties, it's about choosing which difficulties one wishes to cope with. Getting up at 4AM just to shovel out the end of the driveway that the snowplow blocked so I could get to school/work was not a good use of my time.
This Cheesehead escaped to a better climate!!
I had been living in Florida and Texas before moving to the NW and still found the weather to be very sunny up there NW of Seattle on those little islands, Orcas, Anacortes, Whidbey, etc.
So we had no trouble adjusting to changes in climate from the far south to the far north. We were told that Mt. Olympus area took all the rain and that's why these islands didn't receive as much rain as expected. Not if that's true or if it was simply a drought. Mt. Baker area was absolutely beautiful and found that it was easier to go up to Vancouver, CA for some errands than to go all the way down to Seattle.
Read somewhere that all that coffee counteracts the effects of SAD so it may all balance out ok if you like your caffeine :)
It's true that the San Juan's are in the rainshadow of the Olympics. There are places on Lopez that are nearly desert, cactus n all... It's really beautiful. My fav island!
+1 with lhamo...disclaimer: I am a native, as well.
Note, also, western Washington does not end at the King County line, no matter what the legislature and media markets say.
It does rain here alot. For months it's just pissy, drizzly stuff, and for days here and there it's driving stuff. But I'll tell you what we do NOT have -- imminent tornadoes, blizzard-like conditions for weeks on end, or hurricanes. We do have some of the most beautiful, verdant scenery. From where I live, I can be at either the beach, mountain, high desert or Columbia riverbank within an hour or 2.
We live at the 5000 foot level in the Sierras and yesterday it was 78 degrees. Six months ago they could not give houses away in our vacation home area that has changed but homes are still a lot less than they were 6 years ago. So you don't have to give up the Golden State for affordable retirement.
tetrimbath
6-2-13, 11:22pm
I moved to the Seattle area in 1980. There are no broad brush comments about the area, which is handy. The range of climates are amazing. If you stand in Sequim, in the NW of WA, you're standing in a desert. A few dozen miles to the SW is the Hoh rainforest with over 100 inches of rain a year. Look to the East and see Mt. Baker where the world record for snowfall was set at over 1,100 inches a few years ago. Drive over to the east side of the mountains and get dry and sunny 300 days a year. There are probably couples living here because each spouse needs a different climate, they live in a compromise, and drive to what they need when they need it.
Personally, the range of climates is an interlocking collection of playgrounds. In one day I've bicycled around an island and then driven to the mountains for an afternoon of cross-country skiing (I was much younger then).
Having said that, there's a rule of thumb, if you're here after three years, you're probably settle. But a lot of folks leave after the first, second, or third winter of grey. It isn't the rain, it's the clouds. Check the stats. I'm from Pittsburgh. It gets the same amount of rain as my neighborhood here on an island in the Sound, but Pittsburgh gets 300 more hours of sunshine every year. Thirty ten hour days can be a big difference to some. Me, I like rain. If it is cold and raining at home, I have water to drink and snow is building up in the mountains - even in August.
Good luck with your decision.
Lived in Wenatchee WA for about ten years. Smack-dab in the middle of the state from every direction -- north/south, east/west, and diagonally. The best of all worlds. Right on the Columbia River (where it runs south) with the wonderful Cascade Mountains and the Wenatchee National Forest (where DH and I used to work) to the west, and then the high plateau and the "desert" to the east. Whatever you want, it's there. Beautiful hot summer days (but not all THAT hot) and nice snow in the winter. Apples all over the place. When DH retired we would have moved back there (from The Redwoods: cool/rain) but our kids are here in Boise, so here we are. And it's wonderful here, too! A Blue Bastion in a Sea of Red! Boise's not the PNW, but ... you could do worse ... :)
My sister moved from sunny San Diego to greater Portland area. She gets all sorts of weather; the other day we were Skype-ing and she went from sun to monsoon to sun in a matter of minutes. The thing she complained about most was the icy conditions during the winter, where everything is frozen.
I visited there in the summer one year and the sunny days were nice, and the rainy days were cold and damp. I heard that lots of people are on antidepressants because of the weather in the PNW (she is but has other issues as well). As a horseperson, I don't think I'd enjoy having my horse live in mud.
I noticed lots of roofs that needed replacing because of mold/damp.
I know someone here who lives in Grants Pass and says the weather is wonderful - fairly dry and warm (hot even) during a the summers and falls and not too cold or rainy during winter and spring - although they do get snow there because of the higher elevation. I believe much of the valley area of oregon along Interstate 5 (Ashland to Portland) is like that. And of course the eastern portion of the country - as well as Washington - is very dry most of the year. More like high desert but close to mountains, rivers, lakes, etc...
I personally like Washington better than Oregon even if the weather is rainier (I use to live in Alaska so rain, drizzle, fog, dark and cold in Washington seems like a cakewalk to me :-)!). Love the whole area around Puget Sound and would probably settle in Bellingham myself if I moved there (ah yes, another evil crazy Hellifornian moving in ;-)!). Actually I love 4 distict seasons, and snow more than rain and endless drizzle (although I LOVE fog),so probably would choose to move somewhere on the New England coast so that I can get snow too yet be close to the ocean, lakes, rivers and mountains.
The good thing about coastal areas of Washington, Oregon and Calif is that the weather is very temperate (i.e. not too hot and not too cold) most of the year, it's green all year round, and has little or no snow in most places. Yet, even when rainy and drizzly on the coasts, you can go inland a few miles and it can be dry and sunny and hot. I currently live within 5 miles of the ocean in Southrn Calif so it also is very temerate - cool and foggy or overcast which I love. It can be a cool overcast 70 degrees here yet 5 miles inland it's in the 80s and sunny. 20 miles inland and it's in the 100s and dry as a bone. I believe that is common is some places in oregon too.
Personally I can't stand heat or hot weather - especially dry desert-like heat we have in the west. Like cool, green, more humid places. So if the OP comes fromt he midwest where it is like that (but way hotter and more humid in the summer) they may like a central valley location in Oregon as you still have cooler green places in summer but with less rain a drizzle in winter then coastal areas of the PNW.
Also another option - which is what my friend in Grants Pass does since he's retired - is to leave during the winter or part of the winter. He spends several months in the deserts of the South West, maybe a couple of months in mexico (he did both this past winter). He has a camper that he boondocks in for free or just rents an inexpensive apt. He has a MUCH younger GF (the old devil :devil::devil:) and she works as a travelling physical therapist so can gets temporary gigs all over the country so they try to work a winter getaway in with her schedule. So if the OP is going to be retired, then doing the snowbird thing might be a great option.
Californians. They always want to pull up the drawbridge after they get here. http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/remake/biggrin.gif http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/remake/cool.gifWell we do want to keep the riff-raff out after all - meaning other Californians ;-)!
I was born in Maine.
Oh my that explains sooo much ;-)! I'm still thinking you are my old boss. He's from Maine. He's now a firefighter too (chief actually) in a small town Down East (Jonesport I think) and kind of looks like your avatar picture -although he was a bit more ...err... routund in his youth then he is now.
"Bae" and I in Maine:
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1268&d=1370367600
A friend just passed along this handy guide to Portland life; it's pretty much on target.
http://blog.estately.com/2013/06/37-things-to-consider-before-moving-to-portland/
It IS pretty much on target, Jane. However, on the Not Much Snow one....I contend it's the newcomers who don't know how to drive in the snow/ice. If you've always been here, you know.
I've driven in snow (and ice) successfully in Portland, but I spent a few hours sidelined not far from my house near Seattle one year. The difference? More hills. And of course, we get very little practice. Snow driving isn't difficult if you're the only one on the road, I've found.
Plus the traffic is terrible here in the summer:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-NTMgNxqyVlI/Ua5zOKS9GmI/AAAAAAAAHw4/ivTCmMdmtmc/s640/Awesomized.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-pkWHIk5IUyM/Ua5zJZIJDrI/AAAAAAAAHwg/EWkXzt8l3UM/s640/Awesomized.jpg
Hahaha--rush hour! Is that taller fellow Security?
Hahaha--rush hour! Is that taller fellow Security?
No he,s the lone Californian left on the island. Not sure what happened to the rest of them but those sheep do look fat :-)
I believe the temporary paint markings are so they can sort them all out properly, and match back up little ones with mothers - the grazing critters here get moved from field-to-field, often cooperatively by several different farmers.
I was referring to the tall, woolly fellow. But man-eating sheep might make a good Grimm episode...
I was referring to the tall, woolly fellow. But man-eating sheep might make a good Grimm episode...
Or Monty Python.
I was referring to the tall, woolly fellow. But man-eating sheep might make a good Grimm episode... We Californians are good for something after all. "Solent Green is PEOPLE!!!!" - well...Californians who are sort of human. Just make sure the sheep don't ingest too much silicone - I hear it's toxic :-)!
For the OP - I heard on the news this morning that it was going to be 91 in Medford and over 80 in Portland. So maybe it's too hot in some of those valley areas for you during summer - although it is beautiful there, much nicer than eastern Oregon high desert IMHO. But I don't think that those temps are the norm there.
But I don't think that those temps are the norm there.
They are normal for short periods (may a few wk), but not for long sustaining ones.
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