cloudi ^0p«uvit to rtvetd, the JHaritune Jlortimest. On. the east, the Cascade Kan^ fiHfiech it from, the thirsty TlatetUL.. On, the West is the Pacific M Til' 5?' cogL 'Co -O f. is - O/^ftS,.bit ’>ih, '^■s/e/n . Com, / , ''COi .O/, t'^p/. or,I ®Wa — / V 'PtC*i o«$’i V v s . '" Southward the SishtyouA and 'Trinity dfllps palusadt the, % M aritune Jfordm est , ayainst the barehrount ftilLs and humi/^plains o f CaUfirnia,. oNorthweud, thouyti marititnc cUmaie persists, ayrU4jdlure ceases, turned hack hy mountains that rise nvjjf [ fromthe <^o,'Oh v.i.benioA The water crashed against the Tualatin Mountain ridge but left little of the material on the steep slopes. Since then, gooshy topsoil has come to a tentative rest. It has proved to be good for gardening but often slippery for houses and roads. Along the ridges, up the eastern slope, along small ravines and at natural benches, houses have been built. The tree islands here flow one into another. Streams, now dry most of the year, have created ravine after ravine, and the green feet of the ridge stick out into the city like headlands on the coast out into the sea. Rainfall amounts increase from 38 inches on the floor of the Tualatin Plains on the west to 46 inches on the ridge of the mountains, with the highest amounts being recorded just slightly over the eastern side of the ridge. Clouds hang on the ridge, pretending to be fog, as storms pass through the area. The Maritime Climate Living in the Maritime Northwest is sometimes like living in a frog pond. The pond in the summer is a pleasant, cool place to live, and in the winter it is damp and moist. Although the latitude is far north (Portland, for example, is at the latitude of Montreal), the Maritime has striking similarities to a sub-tropical climate like that of the southeastern United States. Walking through a typical rain forest, like those found on the western slopes of the Coast Range, one can easily imagine the few characteristics that might be tampered with that would change our maritime region into a sub-tropical one. Raise the temperature annually 15 degrees, push the humidity level up, and create some thunderstorms rather than drizzle, and it is easy to imagine the local critters such as the alabaster salamander growing to science-fiction proportions and turning into alligators. There are some obvious differences that help define the climatic region. The Maritime experiences its largest daily temperature range during the warm months when the skies are clear. In a sub-tropical area (and in fact over much of the eastern United States), rain pours; here it drizzles. During a typical rainy day in winter we may only get two-tenths of an inch of rain. The Maritime climate is also unique in that we receive about half of our rainfall within three months—November through January. Most regions in the United States receive more or less equal amounts of rain year-round. The humidity level of the Maritime is more comparable to the sub-tropical. However, our highest humidity levels occur at night, and our lowest levels correspond to the hottest part of the day. Portland's Climate Portland's climate exhibits most of the general characteristics of other inland valleys in the Maritime; cloudy and moderate. There is less fog in the Portland area than further south in the 28 t
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