Hi,my wife is from Eugene,Oregon and we now live in Cameron NC.Of course the weather there is very different from here. So she wanted me to ask you guys why is the humidity here SO different during the summer here than there?

MIKE MOSS SAYS:     Travis,     The Eugene area is subject to influences from the Cascades to the east and the Coast range to the west, along with some influence from the Pacific ocean, the waters of which tend to run cooler (50s in the summer is not uncommon) than the Atlantic and Gulf areas (water temps in the upper 70s to low 80s) that influence our summertime weather. Having much warmer large water bodies nearby, and lacking high elevation ridges to either side here (which tend to block the advance of precipitation into the Willamette Valley during the summer, resulting in lower average rainfall there during the summer months than we receive) results in average temperatures a little lower there through the summer, and more notably, results in dew points that are often significantly lower. While we frequently experience afternoon dew points in the 60s to around 70 in the summer, dew points in Eugene during the same time of year are often in the upper 40s to upper 50s. Most of us consider dew points in the 40s and 50s reasonably comfortable, even in fairly warm weather, but dew points in the mid 60s and up feel rather humid, with much above 70 generally interpreted as oppressively humid and very uncomfortable.