Which location has the more interesting weather- Puget Sound or the Willamette Valley?

[Requiem]

Title says it all. Which area has the more interesting weather, and why?

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Pretty similar, though temp extremes are much greater historically in the WIllamette Valley. Most places in the valley have all time record lows of -10 or lower. 

 

Puget Sound gets more snow though. Seattle itself has a super lame climate, but Olympia and convergence zone hotspots are pretty nice...Slight nod to the sound as a region overall.

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Yeah I would imagine for snow it's Western Washington usually more likely to score but who knows?

[Requiem]

Yeah I would imagine for snow it's Western Washington usually more likely to score but who knows?

 

For wind and rain too, it seems.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

For wind and rain too, it seems.

 

Seattle itself is often shadowed by the Olympics. They average less rain than PDX even I believe. 

[Requiem]

Seattle itself is often shadowed by the Olympics. They average less rain than PDX even I believe. 

 

I always forget there's the whole metro area and then Seattle proper. When I say Seattle I often put the whole of Puget Sound under an umbrella (which is false and inaccurate).

[Frontal Snowsquall]

I'd say it's pretty close between the two. From a rain and wind perspective it's pretty much even.

 

Puget Sound gets more snow on average but the Willamette Valley gets better ice storms. Eugene just had a big one 2 years ago that caused lots of damage and East PDX Metro is always prone to ice storms due to the Gorge outflow.

 

If we include heatwaves to the equation, then I'd give the slight lean towards the Willamette Valley since we get warmer temperatures during the summer.

 

The one thing that the Puget Sound has over the Willamette Valley is their convergence zone. I wish we had something like that down here.

[Omegaraptor]

 

This was on July 12 this year.

 

Puget Sound gets bigger rain/wind events, but the Willamette Valley gets stronger heat events. That 55 degree pool of water is 70 miles away from Portland but right smack next to Seattle.

 

Willamette Valley has less diverse weather throughout, with the exception of the warmer nights in Portland caused by the unique topography and slight UHI effect. Fun fact, Portland is less than 1°C away from being a hot-summer climate per Koppen’s definition using 1988-2018 data that I calculated.

[Requiem]

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This was on July 12 this year.

 

Puget Sound gets bigger rain/wind events, but the Willamette Valley gets stronger heat events. That 55 degree pool of water is 70 miles away from Portland but right smack next to Seattle.

 

Willamette Valley has less diverse weather throughout, with the exception of the warmer nights in Portland caused by the unique topography and slight UHI effect. Fun fact, Portland is less than 1°C away from being a hot-summer climate per Koppen’s definition using 1988-2018 data that I calculated.

 

Now that I think about it I like Seattle's weather a bit more. More rain, more wind, a cool convergence zone feature (we have nothing like that one) and more (I believe) snow.

[Front Ranger]

Seattle itself is often shadowed by the Olympics. They average less rain than PDX even I believe. 

 

Yes, the stations right in Seattle have a long term average around 35"/year, compared to most of Portland averaging 42" or so (PDX somehow averages just under 37", less than anywhere else in the metro area). And of course, most the Willamette Valley is also in the 41-44" range.

 

The rain shadow also means Seattle sees more breaks in the rain/sun in the wet season, which some would find more interesting.

 

As far snowfall goes, Portland does better with Gorge outflow and Seattle does better with Fraser outflow/Arctic fronts, and that pretty much cancels out in the long run. Though Portland does on rare occasions have the ability to stay colder for longer periods of time thanks to the Gorge.

 

The Willamette Valley from SLE south is not as good overall for snowfall, in my opinion, but has a slight advantage when it comes to warm-season convection, so there's that.

[TigerWoodsLibido]

Yes, the stations right in Seattle have a long term average around 35"/year, compared to most of Portland averaging 42" or so (PDX somehow averages just under 37", less than anywhere else in the metro area). And of course, most the Willamette Valley is also in the 41-44" range.

 

The rain shadow also means Seattle sees more breaks in the rain/sun in the wet season, which some would find more interesting.

 

As far snowfall goes, Portland does better with Gorge outflow and Seattle does better with Fraser outflow/Arctic fronts, and that pretty much cancels out in the long run. Though Portland does on rare occasions have the ability to stay colder for longer periods of time thanks to the Gorge.

 

The Willamette Valley from SLE south is not as good overall for snowfall, in my opinion, but has a slight advantage when it comes to warm-season convection, so there's that.

Corvallis and Eugene average 5” of snow a year.

[BLI snowman]

Clark County is da bestest. We get the most tornadoes, hot heat, cold cold, and consistent gorge outflow and stuff.

 

Olympia, Marysville/Arlington, and Whatcom County all have some street cred too. Hood Canal is nice.

 

The Willamette Valley south of the Portland metro has a few decent spots closer to the Coast Range, like Dallas. Otherwise...meh.

[snow_wizard]

Pretty similar, though temp extremes are much greater historically in the WIllamette Valley. Most places in the valley have all time record lows of -10 or lower. 

 

Puget Sound gets more snow though. Seattle itself has a super lame climate, but Olympia and convergence zone hotspots are pretty nice...Slight nod to the sound as a region overall.

 

I largely agree with this.  Seattle itself did much better with snow events a long time ago, but in recent years certainly lame.  The thing that unquestionably tilts the balance in favor of Puget Sound for snow, though is how much better we normally do in November events.  The Sound also gets the true Arctic fronts with Fraser River outflow events which can certainly be fun as well.  I've seen a number of the so called flash freeze snow events when those Fraser River events unfold.  I've also seen a few impressive hail events associated with the C-Zone.

[Guest Dome Buster]

Having lived in Bothell and Everett areas for 13 years, I can honestly say the Pscz trumps anything in the area. I was witness to many epic snowfalls, hailstorms, heavy rains and thunderstorms of which Ive never seen down here.

[Guest Sounder]

Great post!

[snow_wizard]

Yes, the stations right in Seattle have a long term average around 35"/year, compared to most of Portland averaging 42" or so (PDX somehow averages just under 37", less than anywhere else in the metro area). And of course, most the Willamette Valley is also in the 41-44" range.

 

The rain shadow also means Seattle sees more breaks in the rain/sun in the wet season, which some would find more interesting.

 

As far snowfall goes, Portland does better with Gorge outflow and Seattle does better with Fraser outflow/Arctic fronts, and that pretty much cancels out in the long run. Though Portland does on rare occasions have the ability to stay colder for longer periods of time thanks to the Gorge.

 

The Willamette Valley from SLE south is not as good overall for snowfall, in my opinion, but has a slight advantage when it comes to warm-season convection, so there's that.

 

Seattle usually owns NW Oregon for snow in November though.  Not always, but years like 1985 were no contest.  Interestingly during the cold phase 1945-75 SEA averaged about 2x more snow than PDX.

[snow_wizard]

Having lived in Bothell and Everett areas for 13 years, I can honestly say the Pscz trumps anything in the area. I was witness to many epic snowfalls, hailstorms, heavy rains and thunderstorms of which Ive never seen down here.

 

There was a C-Zone hail storm in the late 1990s when I was living in Woodinville which was simply amazing.  It was so bad they had to do radio and TV advertisements about insurance claims for it.  Another event that really stands out was in early January 1989 when it snowed about 5 inches where I was living while places both N and S had little to none.  That proved to be a big deal in making that an epic winter when combined with the early Feb and early March events.  The most well rounded and satisfying winter I've seen since the early 1970s at least.

[Requiem]

Having lived in Bothell and Everett areas for 13 years, I can honestly say the Pscz trumps anything in the area. I was witness to many epic snowfalls, hailstorms, heavy rains and thunderstorms of which Ive never seen down here.

You are probably right. For everything else they might be equal, but the W. Valley just doesn't have an equivalent or anything as cool as the convergence zone, unless I'm wrong.