It’s great to be #1 at something, even if that ranking comes with a price.

Dailyglow.com recently published a ranking of 55 U.S. cities, analyzed for how good or bad they are for your skin.  We’re happy to report that Portland, Oregon came out on top!  (Click on image to enlarge.) They applaud our low pollution and ozone levels, but we know that, just like #3-ranked Seattle, it is also because we see so little of the sun.  In fact, a little research shows that Portland averages only 68 clear days a year.  (Clear days are defined as days when no more than 30% of the sky is covered with clouds.)

We complain about the weather, and we suffer through it, forgoing umbrellas because ” real Portlanders don’t use them.”  Wearing rain boots to any place other than a pumpkin patch or soggy athletic field immediately pinpoints you as a non-native.  But honestly, we are lucky.  While most of the rest of the country was suffering through record high temperatures in late June and early July, we were donning sweaters every morning and wishing the sun would come out for more than a few minutes.  As the Midwest and high plains states experience drought, we’re concerned with delayed garden growth due to lack of sun and an abundance of rain.  We don’t have to worry much–July, August and September are our sunniest months, and we’re only half-way through the first of those.

So if you catch us complaining about the rain or lack of sun, feel free to remind us…it’s keeping our skin healthy and (we hope) young-looking!