I live just a few miles from Troutdale in SE Portland.

Yes, Troutdale is VERY windy. Not all year but during the rainy/winter months it is very windy. The wind blows from the east. So the back of your house would be what gets blasted. How bad it would be depends on where exactly the house is. Troutdale is on a hill and some houses are more exposed to the wind than others.

Troutdale does have a cute shopping district, outlet mall, major grocery stores, a fabulous local landmark restaurant Tad's, easy access to freeways, natural areas, PDX airport

It is very windy at my house too. The wind blows the rain at the windows and rattles the whole house and it wakes me up. Yes, I have to chase the garbage can and pick debris out of my shrubs that has blown in. Yes, it can get icy.

More than shingles flying, tree branches are what to be worried about. Our yard is coated with debris from the neighbor's fir trees.

Check Accuweather for Troutdale 97060 to see what the windspeeds are. It is blowing pretty hard right now.

Troutdale is West of the Gorge, not south. Corbett is much more rural than Troutdale and yes, it is more windy. Corbett is a half an hour on either winding route from Troutdale and any major grocery stores etc. Corbett has much more snow and ice than Troutdale and has a higher elevation. There is one convenience type store. Otherwise you have to drive in to Troutdale.

Places along the gorge tend to get more ice too when that east wind comes through in the winter, so that's something else for you to consider.

It's a nice area.

I'd be okay living there, but it wouldn't be in my top picks, due to the wind.

There are equally nice communities west of Portland where the hill blocks the winds.

To prefer Troutdale, knowing of the wind and more frequent ice, someone would need a reason to choose the area: like being close to the river, or being closer to Mt. Hood, etc.. Or near a job.

There is some prime hiking not far from there.

I live in Skamania, it is on the Washington side of the river and about 20 miles or less east of you. I don't notice the wind as much as I do the rain. No matter where you live in this area there is going to be wind. People closer to the coast get more wind and blow down than we do. Don't get me wrong, the gorge can be really nasty. But, one week out of the year if we even have a bad year. It is cooler in the summer. I love living here and would never move back to portland unless I had to.

Thanks for your replies. My husband and I both grew up in cold & snow but have lived in SoCal for several years and have become weather weenies, I think.

We decided to look east of Portland rather than west because of the easier traffic patterns. My husband, the first 6 weeks he was here, traveled with his job to about 5 different areas and he thought going west was the worst.

I wanted to look in Beaverton and Hillsboro but after we drove out there one day and got stuck in the usual traffic on I think it was Hwy 26, I changed my mind.

This week Hillsboro's wind has been right up there with some of the other areas, according to the tv news, so maybe it's just part of living anywhere around here.

I checked in with the office staff at the neighborhood school and they said Troutdale is among the first to get ice and snow but it never lasts long. They also said it's very pretty and they wouldn't want to live anywhere else. So I'm sure I'll be able to adjust.

And I'll get some exercise chasing my garbage can!

You were comparing Hillsboro's wind to Troudale's during a major storm event when the wind came from the west?

Troutdale needs to be thought about in relation to the winter winds that come from the east: funneled by the gorge and the flat surface of the Columbia River.

If you get a house in Troutdale, you should be fine. It's windy at times, but nothing severe. You can hop over to Washington fairly quick from there too, for recreation.

You've seen the gorge east of Troutdale - yes?

Oregon Photos: quite a few are east of Troutdale

4, 7 - 11, 15 - 20 and 47 - 52 are all about 15 to 30 minutes of Troutdale.

Being a hiker myself, I'd be very satisfied living in that area.

The traffic in Beaverton and Hillsboro is significantly worse than in East County.

I am now a sales rep and have to drive all over the place calling on stores. I dread going to the West Side because of the traffic.

buyorsell is right to a degree.

The traffic is what made us want a change from Beaverton to J-ville, Oregon for a while.

When we moved to Beaverton in the 60s, even though there was a city area, about 80% of the land was rural.

Personally, I'd take the west side over the east if I had to move back, because I know the short-cuts.

I was able to get from Tualatin, all the way into Beaverton, about a year and a half ago, by cutting through Tualatin, Tigard, and using Roy Rogers Road.

That was 20 minutes in rush-hour.

If the west seems slower than the east, it's time to study the map and discover the hidden secrets.

I live in Hillsboro and communte to Gresham five days a week. On an average, Troutdale will have many more days with significant wind than the west side. Troutdale also has more ice when we have the winter storms with freezing rain. Corbett is definitly a bigger challange than any of the other areas you mentioned.

However when the hurricane force winds come up the Willamette Valley as happened here two weeks ago, the severe damage will be on the west side and Portland proper as those storms get a real run up the valley. Gresham/Troutdale does not get the significant damage you'll see elsewhere because there are small hills and ridges that break up those 70 mph winds.

In Hillsboro, west of 185th, I have colder overall winter temperatures than you'll see in Troutdale. Check the numbers for the average low and number of days below freezing at the Troutdale airport versus Hillsboro airport. I'll have snow when the rest of the metro area is melted. I have lost plants that wintered over just fine in my daughter's yard at elevation in the west hills. Portland is full of micro climates and your best bet is to ask someone in the neighborhood whose yard looks like they're a gardner or one of the eastside retail nurseries.

In Troutdale the biggest problems is from the wind desiccating your plants. A little protection from the drying winds can do a lot and when it comes to trees you must be careful not to plant things that really brittle. Ice storms are very unkind but everyone in this vicinity suffers from time to time.

Last of all you mentioned the home you were looking at had a yard that faced west. I think that will offer extra protection from the wind.

Good luck!

For a general description...

Here is a link that might be useful: Climate Zone Map: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia

Sunset WESTERN GARDEN BOOK goes into it (Willamette Valley climate) a bit more, as well as other topics you have mentioned. For another one you might like to look at...

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades

Thanks for all the responses and ideas. Our purchase of the house closed today - I got the keys - so now I can really start to think about the garden.

The book about growing vegetables is one I'll definitely take a look at. I have a Sunset Western Gardening book so I'll have to go through that as well. And will look for some of the others listed on the "Favorite Authors" thread.

There are many bushes and some trees around the house that I'm not familiar with and haven't identified yet. I may have to wait until they leaf out or bloom. So this will be an interesting year.

Welcome to the PNW. I lived in North San Diego county all of my life until I followed my husbands heart to PNW. I cried all the way to Washington but four years later I don't even look back. I love it here. The only thing I really miss is the great Mexican food!

Congratulations on following through with the purchase of your new home. We recently (1-1/2 years ago) moved from Gresham to the Corbett area. I work downtown Portland, but every evening when I cross that bridge over the Sandy river, all the cares of the business world just float away.

Sure the wind blows at times - I feel it almost every morning when I walk up the driveway (in my bathrobe)to get the paper. I dug up a number of plants at the Gresham House and brought them with me and most of them survived. Believe it or not, in the spring or the fall, the wind keeps the frost off plants so our growing season is actually longer than Hillsboro's or some other places on the west side of Portland.The fact that there are trees and shrubs growing around your house is a good sign that something will grow there. The recommendation not to plant birches (except Himalayan birches) is a good one. I had birches in my former garden in Gresham and one year one lost the top during a freeze. I love birches, but they attract aphids and loose a lot of brittle twigs.
There are a number of garden clubs, plant groups, great nurseries in the area and it won't take you long to come up to speed with gardening in this area.
Good luck

I miss good Mexican food too, I grew up in Phoenix.

Hello. I know this thread is more than 10 years old but, like Minet was when she started this discussion, I'm a southern Californian considering a move to the PNW and Troutdale is of interest. I visited the Vancouver area in Nov. 2017 and drove around a lot, looking at neighborhoods including Washougal and as far north as Ridgefield, WA. If Minet is still reading postings, perhaps could you give feedback on how you have liked living in Troutdale the past 10 years? How has your gardening experience been? Is the wind really an issue?

Thanks so much, Minet, or anyone who wants to comment. I've lived in places with very inclement weather - WI, IL, MT, Mammoth Lakes CA - so the PNW isn't automatically intimidating in a weather-sense :)

Locations you mention are very similar for temperature and rainfall, but Troutdale would be the windiest, although this moderates the very lowest temperatures that occur in calm conditions.

Good morning, Logician, and thanks for the quick helpful response.

You're welcome. Washougal can be windy also, depending on how close to the Columbia River you are. Ridgefield is much calmer, slightly cooler summers than Portland. Sales tax in WA, none in OR.

Such helpful info. I'm a hiker, fly fisherman, gardener so either Oregon or Washington will have so much to offer. Thank you, Logician.

I still live in the same house that is close to Troutdale. As a sales rep who calls on stores all over the state, I like Ridgefield. It is close to Portland but out of the wind tunnel. There is a cute little downtown and a wildlife refuge. I worry that the new casino will really increase traffic though. Troutdale is still windy. We replaced our siding, windows and insulation as well as a lot of rafters and framing and that reduced the noise significantly at our house. Still chase the garbage cans. My horse lives just five miles south, away from the Gorge and the wind there is significantly reduced. I worked twenty miles south in Wilsonville for nine years and the wind there was much less too. If I was going to move, it would not be to Troutdale....nor would I ever move to Beaverton. I like the East side.

Thank you! Those are good specifics regarding the area. I'll be visiting next month and checking out various places in OR and WA within 90 minutes drive from PDX including McMinnville. I really appreciate it, BuyorSell888.

No sales tax in Oregon but unlike in WA (so far) you have to file and pay a state income tax, on top of the federal filings (and payments).

On a related note Seattle area currently has the highest rate of increase in housing costs in the nation, followed by Portland. Large numbers of people are pouring into the region from elsewhere in the country (including California), the relative amount of available inventory here is the lowest it has been in 10 years. And the prices being gotten by sellers the highest.

A few months ago I became interested in moving out of the now crowded, overly busy and expensive Seattle hub and going to a scenically situated town north of here. Unfortunately I then learned that starting about 3 years ago everybody else seems to have gotten the same idea, with the result for instance that any existing habitations there that are at all decent start at $350,000 - for instance a tiny 1920 fishing cabin like place with an old smell, sloping floor. sloping lot, almost no space for parking and asbestos siding an agent showed me was priced at $240,000.

And during this last visit I noticed the same huge awful boxes that fill nearly the entire lot were cropping up incongruously among smaller, older houses there also. Subsequent web viewing is revealing other, equally charmless big city style development having taken place there in later times.

I know what you mean, Embothrium.

I've also seen what you describe.

McMinnville is wine country central. Rolling foothills. Lots of "new money". More subject to higher but infrequent SW winds in spring, fall. Seems to have more cold-air funnel clouds down that way. Potential of very cold winter nights when calm (single-digits perhaps a 5 or 10-year event). Nearer to Coast Range than to Cascade Mountains. Travel on main highway 99W can be slow. One of the main routes to the Coast passes by a large casino.

Contrary to general patterns the farther south you go in the Willamette Valley the colder it is during the winter. So Portland airport has seen -3 F, but Eugene has had -17 before.

This is all helpful feedback. I do watch the weather history, but the real-life experience you both offer is much more valuable. Thanks.

Traffic through Dundee can be stop and go any time of day....