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April showers bring a flooding Willamette.
A three-day downpour in the Willamette Valley has creeks and rivers cresting their banks—including the Willamette River, which is expected to hit mild flooding stage on Monday, The Statesman-Journal in Salem reported.
But the National Weather Service says the Willamette will only flood in Eugene, and even out by the time it flows into Portland Harbor.
"We don't think it's going to hit flooding stages in Portland," says Amanda Bowen, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "We think it will probably be down south."
A flooding Willamette anywhere in Oregon remains a remarkable occurrence in April. The Weather Service says this is the latest in the calendar year that the Northwest end of the state has seen flooding rivers.
There is only one other time in recent history that Northwest Oregon has seen river flooding in April. That was April 1-2, 2012. #orwx #AprilShowers #Flooding
— NWS Portland (@NWSPortland) April 7, 2019
The floods cap what Bowen calls a "body" winter of unusual weather extremes.
"It's been very busy in Portland, just because of the constant threat of snow," she says. "February was very cold and very snowy. It was busier than we thought it was going to be. That's why we hold our forecasts to seven days, and not further out."