It could be a wet and wild but very helpful weekend in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains.
Significant thunderstorms dropping a half-inch to 1.5 inches of rain, and bringing winds up to 60 mph, are forecast Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning.
A tenth to a quarter inch of rain will also be possible across the Willamette Valley and foothills.
The storms could be a boon for slowing wildfires and reducing fire danger, especially with a cool and cloudy forecast upcoming. But anyone camping in the mountains could be hammered by wind, rain and possibly lightning.
“Right now we’re about 60-80% sure that the Cascades will see at least a quarter of an inch of rain, and we’re 70% that rainfall will be widespread,” said Daniel Hartsock, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Portland. “It just kind of depends where the storms set up. Some places could see 1.5 inches of rain, others could see relatively little.”
In areas where rain is heavier, a flash flood watch has been issued over the wildfire scars of the 2024 fires due to concern over landslides or debris flows, according to the National Weather Service. The rain isn’t forecast to be heavy enough to bring landslides in fire scars from previous years, Hartsock said.