Data: Climate Central; Note: Includes weather stations in cities with sufficient data quality; Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios
Rainstorms have become only slightly more intense in Portland over the last half century, according to a new analysis — but other parts of Oregon have seen dramatic dips in precipitation.
The big picture: Hourly rainfall intensity increased between 1970 and 2024 in nearly 90% of the 144 locations analyzed, a report from the nonprofit Climate Central found.
In Portland, rainfall intensity increased by just 0.3%.
Yes, but: Eugene saw one of the biggest declines in rainfall intensity, with a drop of nearly 35%.
How it works: The researchers divided each location's total annual rainfall by its total hours of annual rainfall, using NOAA weather station data.
That approach quantifies how much rain fell for each hour it was raining in a given year.