Portland’s rainy weather can be deceiving.
Sometimes, on what feels like the wettest day in a string of water-soaked days, you discover that, in fact, there were even wetter days. In fact, the National Weather Service will tell you that rain is normal and we should stop complaining.
But other times, the data provides some well-earned evidence: In fact, it’s never been this wet before.
Another atmospheric river is heading toward the Pacific Northwest on Thursday, expected to bring two or more inches of rain to the region, including Portland, which is coming off a stretch of extremely wet weather a week ago.
The clouds delivered on that promise, and the rainfall records proved it.
Thursday, December 18, was Portland’s wettest December 18 on record, bringing 2.1 inches of rain to the city. This is the first time Portland International Airport has recorded more than two inches of precipitation since the weather service began tracking.
These new numbers break the previous rainfall record set on December 18, 2021, when only 1.26 inches fell. After that, the third wettest day was back in 1941, with 1.01 inches of rain.
Oregon Weather
In a typical December, the airport receives about 5.77 inches of rain — more than a dozen days before the city’s average rainfall is exceeded. As of December 10, 4.77 inches of precipitation had been measured at Portland International Airport.
Other Oregon cities also broke daily precipitation records Thursday.
On Thursday, Eugene received 2.75 inches of rain. The previous record was 1.52 inches in 2018.
A staggering 2.93 inches of rain fell in Salem, surpassing the previous record of 2.5 inches set in 1917.
Vancouver received 1.75 inches of rain on Thursday. This surpassed the previous record of 1.33 inches set in 2021.
Hillsborough received 1.97 inches of rainfall. The previous record was 1.3 inches in 1932.
Astoria Regional Airport recorded 1.29 inches of rain Thursday, breaking the previous record of 1.2 inches set in 1955.
Read the original article at oregonlive.com.