🌲 Portland Weather

Gray winters, glorious summers

Portland sits in the Willamette Valley between the Coast Range and the Cascades, with a marine-influenced climate that splits the year sharply in two: long, gray, drizzly winters and a dry, sunny, near-perfect summer that catches many newcomers by surprise.

The famous wet season

From October through April, Portland earns its rainy reputation — not through heavy downpours but through persistent light rain and overcast skies. Winter highs sit in the mid-40s°F (around 7°C), and the city averages around 36 inches (910 mm) of rain a year, most of it in these damp, mild months. Genuine snow is uncommon in the city itself.

A summer payoff and a Gorge wind hazard

July through September flips the script: rainfall all but stops, humidity stays low, and highs settle in the comfortable low 80s°F (around 28°C) under blue skies. The valley's distinctive hazard comes in winter, when frigid east winds rush out of the Columbia River Gorge and collide with moist Pacific air to produce disruptive ice storms.

Heat waves have grown more severe — the June 2021 heat dome pushed Portland to an astonishing all-time record of 116°F (47°C) in a city where air conditioning was long considered optional.

The dry-summer surprise

Portland's rainy reputation hides a twist: its summers are among the driest of any major US city, with July and August often passing nearly rainless under warm, sunny skies. The rain concentrates in the cool half of the year as steady, light drizzle rather than downpours.

The city's wildcard is the east wind through the Columbia River Gorge, which in winter can channel frigid air out of the interior and turn a Portland rainstorm into a paralyzing ice storm. Summer heat can also spike hard when that same gorge wind turns offshore, as the record 116°F (47°C) of June 2021 showed.