It's happened to most of us. You're traveling, strike up a conversation with someone from a different part of the country and invariably when you tell them you're from Oregon, their face scrunches up and you hear some form of:

"How do you handle all the rain?"

I usually respond with, yeah, it rains a lot in the winter, but what part of the country doesn't have a few months of less than ideal weather? Most people buy that. But when I explain that we have the best summers IN THE WORLD, you can see the eyebrows rise. I'm like, no, really, trust me I'm a professional. By then, if they're not running away, they're usually changing the subject to something else. Which is fine. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't get some measure of fun out of ambush conversations about the weather with strangers. Hee hee.

And we're in the middle of one of those classic great summer weather stretches. Other than a little smoky haze from wildfires up north, the sky remains clear, temperatures warm and humidity low. Too much for those enduring the annual East Coast heat and humidity festival to believe.

If you're wondering WHY our summer are so great, it all goes back to the oceans. The Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico get hot in summer, but our ocean stays cool, so it adds very little humidity to the summer air, and it keeps western Oregon from getting too hot, as long as the winds have some component coming from the west.

Last August we had ONE day with measurable rain. None so far this year, and none in the forecast for days to come. Soak it in, because you know we're going to get soaked and start earning our rainy reputation in a couple months.

Matt Zaffino
KGW Chief Meteorologist

mzaffino@kgw.com