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Portland (Oregon) is a city in northwestern Oregon, the seat of Multnomah County and the largest city in the state. Portland is the business and transportation hub for much of the Pacific Northwest and a growing center for electronics manufacturing. The city has a striking natural setting and rich cultural resources; it refers to itself as the City of Roses.
Portland lies on both banks of the Willamette River near where it empties into the Columbia River. Spring and summer weather is generally mild, and the city receives heavy rains in the late fall and winter. While heavy snow is rare, Portland occasionally suffers under ice storms brought about when frigid air from the state's interior passes through the gorge of the Columbia River and collides with the warmer, moist air of the coast. Average annual precipitation is 920 mm (36 in). In January the average high temperature is 7° C (45° F) and the average low 1° C (34° F); in July highs average 27° C (80° F) and lows 13° C (56° F).
Francis Pettygrove, one of the founders of Portland, named the city in 1845 after winning a coin toss with cofounder Asa Lovejoy. Pettygrove named it for his hometown of Portland, Maine; had Lovejoy won he intended to name it after his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts.
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