What geographical "belt" is Oregon in?

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

The Frost Belt is in the northeast and north-central US while the south is known as the "Sun Belt." But what about western Oregon and Washington? What "belt" are we in? Green Belt? Rain Belt? Tree Belt?

[Eugenian]

1. It's the Latte Belt. n/t

[Trajan]

2. Perhaps there is no belt ?

Must everyone be inside of some belt ?

Oregon is a land of many interesting features : The Cascades, the extensive deserts in the middle and east regions ... The coastal range .. The Willamette valley ... The Columbia Gorge ...

Trying to incorporate ALL of those various and wide ranging geographical aspects into a one word reference seems impossible ....

Perhaps it is the 'Oregon' belt ....

One of my favorite studies as a recent resident is the fact of the constant glacial deluges from Glacial Lake Missoula, an ever-repeating flood of water a half-mile high that carved the Columbia Gorge and many other features, such as the Coulees, the Scablands, the RICH Willamette Valley ...

I recently learned that Lake Oswego, formerly known as "Sucker Lake", was formed by a 'kolk', a vortex formed by the flood waters passing over the land ....

It seems that, like gods, regions as rich as Oregon and other western states lose something when someone attempts to confine it to a one word definition .... It limits our expression ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_Lake_Missoula

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_United_States_Pacific_Mountain_System

It it's any help: I understand the valleys in the west are 'Zone 7' according to the 'Sunset Western Garden' designation ...

[Reader Rabbit]

3. I think the "belt" analogy only works until you get to the Rockies.

Everything West of the Rockies pretty much defies labeling.

If we have to be a belt, though, I'd say we're the Beer Belt.

[Trajan]

4. LMFAO

I think I'll have another BELT, Mister Bartender ....

[Ken Burch]

7. Congratulations.

You've now created the NW version of "How about a nice Hawaiian Punch?".

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Oregon has at least six climates

The Coast--almost always cool, but never too cold, very rainy during the winter
The Willamette Valley--warmer in the summer and colder in the winter than the coast, with rain in the winter, sometimes snow
The Gorge--wet in the west, dry in the east, and very, very windy, a prime spot for windsurfing
Eastern Oregon--high desert with rocks and sagebrush, but colder in the winter than the Willamette Valley. Surprising to people who think of Oregon as "the place where it rains all the time."
The Cascades--mountains with lots of snow in the winter, cool in the summer
Southern Oregon--like the Willamette Valley, but much hotter in the summer

West of the Rockies, the climate bands tend to run vertically rather than horizontally, and they're dependent on closeness to the ocean and/or mountains.

[Ken Burch]

6. Wouldn't it be the Rain Belt?

(if you threw in that square-shaped state just north, that is?)

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

8. Have you been here in July?

Not very rainy then.