This weekend, Portland bumped into an old friend: rain.
The first cold front of autumn dumped 2.45 inches of rain on the city between Friday and Sunday, Sept. 17-19, according to the most recent observations recorded by the National Weather Service. That’s more rain than the city received in the past four months combined.
A parched summer delivered just 2.08 inches of rain to Portland between May 1 and Thursday evening, says NWS meteorologist Brianna Muhlestein. At one point, the city suffered 46 consecutive days without measurable precipitation.
Related: Most of Portland is parched. But these 20 Hydro Hogs are making it rain.
It’s unusual for a rainstorm of this scale to hit Portland so early in the fall. On average, the NWS says, Portland sees its first rain event above 2 inches around Nov. 10 each year. In fact, the past two days were the wettest conditions Portland has recorded for those dates.
For the second consecutive day, Portland has set a new daily precipitation record. The 1.15 inches of rain measured at Portland Intl. Airport as of 5 PM surpasses the total of 0.97" measured on this date in both 1988 and 1982. #ORwx
— NWS Portland (@NWSPortland) September 20, 2021
“Now, while it is not uncommon to see significant rainfall in mid- to late September,” NWS meteorologists wrote Sept. 15, “it will be more noticeable this year, as it has been so dry for so long.”
There’s still plenty of making up to do: As of last week, Portland was 6.71 inches below its normal rainfall to date. The next week is expected to be mostly sunny.