What Is It Actually Like to Live in Redmond, Oregon in the Winter?
By Diana Pullen | Listing Specialist, Real Broker LLC | Serving Redmond, Bend, Terrebonne, Culver, Sisters, Prineville, Madras, La Pine, and surrounding communities
Winter living in Redmond Oregon blog header, sunny snow covered neighborhood with blue sky, honest local winter guide for people moving to Central Oregon Diana Pullen listing specialist soldincentraloregon.com
We moved to Redmond from Texas two years ago. I did not own a snow shovel. I did not own snow tires. I had never once thought about what cinder does to a white car.
I know things now.
If you're considering a move to Central Oregon and winter is the part giving you pause, this is the honest version of what it actually looks like from someone who went through it coming from a place where winter means a light jacket and maybe a frost warning on the news.
Our First Winter: What Everyone Called "Mild"
Our first Redmond winter was described by locals as mild, which I've come to understand is a relative term in the Pacific Northwest. We had maybe two weeks of snow, off and on, and it didn't stick around long. There were cold mornings, clear sunny days, and a general crispness in the air that felt genuinely different from anything we'd experienced before.
Fresh snow in Redmond is beautiful. It's quiet and clean and it has a smell to it; that cold, crisp, almost metallic scent that hits you when you open the door in the morning and everything is white and still. Walking in fresh snow and hearing it crunch under your feet is one of those sensory experiences that never really gets old, even when you're also thinking about shoveling the walk before work.
Our dachshund BarbieQ had her own take on the whole thing. Snow is not her preference. Her approach to a snowy morning is to push through the dog door, take exactly as many steps as absolutely necessary, handle her business at record speed, and get back inside. She has maintained this position across both winters and I respect her commitment to it.
What Nobody Tells You Before You Move Here
A few things I learned that I wish someone had mentioned earlier:
Shovel your walk. Redmond doesn't have the same city mandate as Bend, but it is absolutely expected that you keep your sidewalk clear. When it snows and you get a couple of inches, that means shoveling once or twice a day. We did this manually our first winter and it is more work than it sounds, especially when you're doing it every morning before the day starts. We bought a used electric snow blower before our second winter and it has been one of the better purchases we've made since moving here. If you're coming from somewhere that doesn't require this kind of thing, add a snow blower to your moving checklist.
Get snow stud tires. I get mine put on in November before the season starts. They make a noticeable difference driving on snow and ice and give you a lot more confidence on the roads. If you're moving from Texas or California and have never driven in snow, tires are the first investment to make.
Cinder, not salt. Redmond puts cinder on the roads for traction instead of salt or sand. It works well for the roads. It is not kind to a white car. I have made my peace with a gray-ish vehicle from November through March. A good car wash is the answer, just not every day.
Daily Life Doesn't Really Stop
This is the thing that surprised me most about winter in Redmond: life just keeps going. The school bus comes to our street every single day, snow or not. School is in session. Kids go outside for recess. When baseball season starts up in the spring and there's still snow on the ground, practice happens anyway. Kids are in their cleats, parents are in their coats, and nobody seems particularly fazed by it.
I still go to yoga through the winter. Community events still happen. The Sisterhood of Redmond still meets for coffee and book club. The general attitude here is that snow is a feature of the season, not a reason to cancel everything and stay home. Coming from a place where half an inch of ice shut down an entire city for days, this took some adjusting to. Now I genuinely appreciate it.
Ryan works out in our home gym through the colder months since mountain biking isn't his winter activity of choice. He has gone up to Mt. Bachelor a few times to snowboard, which is about 45 minutes from Redmond and one of the better ski areas in the Pacific Northwest. For a family that wants access to real skiing without having to live in a ski town, the proximity to Bachelor is one of Redmond's genuinely underrated assets.
What Winter Actually Looks Like Week to Week
A regular winter week in our house looks something like this: cold mornings, usually in the 20s overnight and climbing into the high 30s or low 40s during the day. Mostly clear and sunny, which is the part that surprises people most. Central Oregon gets over 300 days of sunshine a year and winter is not exempt from that. You can have six inches of snow on the ground and a bright blue sky overhead, which creates a kind of beauty that's hard to describe until you've seen it.
There are stretches where it's just cold and dry without any snow at all. There are weeks where it snows a little every day. There are occasional storms that bring more accumulation and then a day or two of cold clear weather that packs it down before it melts. The snow generally doesn't stick around for weeks the way it does at higher elevations. That's one of the advantages of Redmond's lower elevation compared to Bend and Sisters; we tend to get less accumulation and it tends to clear faster.
What to Actually Prepare For
If you're moving here from a warmer climate, here's the practical checklist:
Snow stud tires, ideally on before November. An electric snow blower or a good quality snow shovel if you're on a budget. A warm coat that actually functions in real cold, not just looks good. Layers for the kids because they will be outside regardless of temperature. And a dog with a more adventurous spirit than BarbieQ, if outdoor pets are part of your life.
Beyond the gear, the mindset shift is probably the bigger adjustment. Winter here is not a season to get through; it's a season to be in. The fresh snow walks, the snowboarding weekends, the cozy mornings with coffee while the yard is white and quiet; those are genuinely good things about living here in winter. You just have to be set up for it rather than caught off guard by it.
The Bottom Line
Redmond winters are real but manageable. They're cold, occasionally snowy, consistently sunny, and a lot more livable than people from warmer climates tend to assume. The infrastructure here handles winter well, the community doesn't shut down, and the access to winter recreation within an hour of your front door is something most places simply can't offer.
If you're considering a move to Central Oregon and want to talk through what life here actually looks like across all four seasons, I'm happy to have that conversation. I've lived it from a Texas starting point and I can give you a straight answer about what to expect.
Diana Pullen, Oregon Real Estate Broker who is a listing specialist and Redmond local, Real Broker LLC.
Schedule your free consultation here: https://www.calendly.com/diana-soldincentraloregon/consult
Weather information reflects personal experience and general climate patterns for Redmond, Oregon as of 2026. Winter conditions vary year to year; always check current road and weather conditions before traveling.
