4 ms·

This is definitely alive in Portland, OR. There's a pride in handling the rain.

dmoy 10y ago
If Portland is anything like up here in Seattle, it also doesn't actually rain that much (usually). More just a continuous drizzle for 8 solid months.
- csydas 10y ago
  Yeah, I moved to Seattle about 6 years ago from the Midwest and was teased often by some Seattle natives for having an umbrella, which seemed to be fairly arbitrary to choose to pick on given that rubber rain boots were common enough to have fasionable variants made. Not everyone, of course, but quite a few of my colleagues would try to make it a point of pride. Tangentially, most Seattle-lites also didn't understand what I meant when I said Seattle has a lot of drizzle, but it doesn't have rain; growing up in the midwest with midwest thunderstorms, a lot of them didn't seem to understand what I meant by the smell of a storm or the greenish color of the sky as a thunderhead approaches. We all get prideful for various things, I guess though...I know far too many folk from back in WI who insist they can drive perfectly in any weather, despite having wrecked multiple cars in winters past.
  - seanmcdirmid 10y ago
    Seattle can get some bad soaking storms in October/November. Portland also! Umbrellas are taboo because you can't use them easily on your bike, so a nice rain coat (was gortex?) works better. If we did use an umbrella, it was usually the collapsible one that you could fit in your bag, full size British/Japanese style umbrellas were rare. Nothing as bad as my mom's hometown a bit further to the north (Ketchikan).
    - cr1895 10y ago
      I don't see umbrellas on bikes too much in the Netherlands, but when I do they're often this type of aerodynamic shaped umbrella: http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/dossiers/archive/senz-umbrella/ http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/dossiers/archive/senz-umbre...
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - michael_h 10y ago
    Smell of a storm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor
jasonkester 10y ago
Portland and Seattle are interesting though. It rains a lot, but it never seems to rain on you. I walked to work in Portland for two years, and while the streets were normally wet and it had clearly been raining recently, there were only a handful of days where I actually got wet during the half hour I was walking. I never carried an umbrella. Compare that to England, where the rain will wait until you're a few hundred yards out of your house, then attack from otherwise sunny skies to blast you from dead sideways with that particularly English tiny-dropped dense-yet-light-seeming rain that soaks your clothes completely in two minutes flat. Then it will stop and let you carry on to your destination wet. You can never leave the house here unprepared.
- elsurudo 10y ago
  > Portland and Seattle are interesting though. It rains a lot, but it never seems to rain on you. That's right, it's a constant drizzle, but rarely anything more. Lived there for just four months, but it was the fall "rainy season", and I barely ever used my umbrella.
selimthegrim 10y ago
Nike sells a Portland themed T shirt with "Shut Your Umbrella" below its logo.

dmoy 10y ago

If Portland is anything like up here in Seattle, it also doesn't actually rain that much (usually). More just a continuous drizzle for 8 solid months.

csydas 10y ago
Yeah, I moved to Seattle about 6 years ago from the Midwest and was teased often by some Seattle natives for having an umbrella, which seemed to be fairly arbitrary to choose to pick on given that rubber rain boots were common enough to have fasionable variants made. Not everyone, of course, but quite a few of my colleagues would try to make it a point of pride. Tangentially, most Seattle-lites also didn't understand what I meant when I said Seattle has a lot of drizzle, but it doesn't have rain; growing up in the midwest with midwest thunderstorms, a lot of them didn't seem to understand what I meant by the smell of a storm or the greenish color of the sky as a thunderhead approaches. We all get prideful for various things, I guess though...I know far too many folk from back in WI who insist they can drive perfectly in any weather, despite having wrecked multiple cars in winters past.
- seanmcdirmid 10y ago
  Seattle can get some bad soaking storms in October/November. Portland also! Umbrellas are taboo because you can't use them easily on your bike, so a nice rain coat (was gortex?) works better. If we did use an umbrella, it was usually the collapsible one that you could fit in your bag, full size British/Japanese style umbrellas were rare. Nothing as bad as my mom's hometown a bit further to the north (Ketchikan).
  - cr1895 10y ago
    I don't see umbrellas on bikes too much in the Netherlands, but when I do they're often this type of aerodynamic shaped umbrella: http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/dossiers/archive/senz-umbrella/ http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/dossiers/archive/senz-umbre...
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- michael_h 10y ago
  Smell of a storm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor

jasonkester 10y ago

Portland and Seattle are interesting though. It rains a lot, but it never seems to rain on you. I walked to work in Portland for two years, and while the streets were normally wet and it had clearly been raining recently, there were only a handful of days where I actually got wet during the half hour I was walking. I never carried an umbrella. Compare that to England, where the rain will wait until you're a few hundred yards out of your house, then attack from otherwise sunny skies to blast you from dead sideways with that particularly English tiny-dropped dense-yet-light-seeming rain that soaks your clothes completely in two minutes flat. Then it will stop and let you carry on to your destination wet. You can never leave the house here unprepared.

elsurudo 10y ago
> Portland and Seattle are interesting though. It rains a lot, but it never seems to rain on you. That's right, it's a constant drizzle, but rarely anything more. Lived there for just four months, but it was the fall "rainy season", and I barely ever used my umbrella.

selimthegrim 10y ago

Nike sells a Portland themed T shirt with "Shut Your Umbrella" below its logo.