About This Station
The station is powered by a Davis VantagePro2 Plus weather station. The data is collected every 60 seconds and the site is updated every 15 minutes. This site and its data is collected using Weather Display Software. The station is comprised of an anemometer, rain gauge, solar sensor, UV sensor, thermo-hydro sensor, soil moisture sensor, and two soil temp sensors (one located at 6 inch depth, the second is measuring the fish pond water temp), all are situated in the best positions (given site restrictions) for the highest accuracy possible.
About Portland, Oregon, USA
History
Portland started as a spot known as "the clearing", which was on the banks of the Willamette about halfway between Oregon City (Oregon) and Fort Vancouver (Washington). In 1843, William Overton saw great commercial potential for this land, but lacked the funds required to file a land claim. He struck a bargain with his partner Asa Lovejoy of Boston, Massachusetts: for 25¢, Overton would share his claim to the 640-acre (2.6 km²) site. Overton later sold his half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove of Portland, Maine. Pettygrove and Lovejoy both wished to name the new city after their own home town; this was decided with a coin toss, which Pettygrove won.
At the time of its incorporation on February 8, 1851 Portland had over 800 inhabitants, a steam sawmill, a log cabin hotel, and a newspaper, the Weekly Oregonian. By 1879, the population had grown to 17,500.
Portland's location, with access both to the Pacific Ocean via the Willamette and the Columbia rivers and to the agricultural Tualatin Valley via the "Great Plank Road" through a canyon in the West Hills (the route of current-day U.S. Highway 26), gave it an advantage over nearby ports, and it grew quickly. It remained the major port in the Pacific Northwest for much of the 19th century, until the 1890s, when Seattle's deepwater harbor was connected to the rest of the mainland by rail, affording an inland route without the treacherous navigation of the Columbia River.
The first known reference to Portland as "The City of Roses" was made by visitors to an 1888 Episcopal Church convention, the nickname growing in popularity after the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition where Mayor Harry Lane suggested that the city needed a "festival of roses" The first Portland Rose Festival was held two years later, and remains the city's major annual festival a century later.
Nicknames
Other nicknames for Portland include "Stumptown" (due to early logging to clear land for development), "Bridgetown" (due to its numerous bridges), "Puddletown" (due to the rainy weather), "Rip City" (originally coined by longtime Blazers play-by-play announcer Bill Schonely, and soon extended to the city), "River City" (due to its proximity to the Willamette and Columbia), and "PDX" (after the city's airport code). Former US President George H. W. Bush used to refer to Portland as "Little Beirut" because of the protesters he encountered during his visits.
Climate
Portland's climate is temperate and seasonal. The average rainfall ranges between approximately 40 to 45 inches per year depending on location. Portland averages 155 days with measurable precipitation a year. Snowfall is rather uncommon. Although it lies in the Marine West Coast climate zone, Portland shows many characteristics of a Mediterranean climate. The city has mild wet winters, and hot, dry summers. The summer months (June through September) mark the driest period, averaging no more than one inch of rain per month, but it is not uncommon for summer months to receive little or no precipitation. November through April is the rainy season, with 80% of the total annual rainfall occurring in those months. Winter low temperatures hover around 35 °F (2 °C), and summer highs average around 80 °F (27 °C), however summer heat waves with temperatures exceeding 100 °F (38 °C) do occur on occasion. But for the most part, the Portland summers are very pleasant with abundant sunshine. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Portland was -3 °F (-19 °C), set on February 2, 1950. Portland recorded a record high temperature of 107 °F (42 °C) numerous times, and temperatures of 100 °F (38 °C) have been recorded in each of the months from May through September.
N.B "A brief note about pronunciation"
The correct spelling is as above. The pronunciation of the city is as, as one would expect - "Port Land". The state, however, trips up most non-natives. It is pronounced "ORY GUN", NOT "ORY GONE"! And it certainly is NOT spelled Oregan, unless you are from Ireland, then it MIGHT be considered as O'Regan... GRIN! Other local names that instanly identify you as a non-native include Willamette, and Tualatin, these are pronounced "Will Lamb Met" and "Too All It Tin".
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