All set on a frog Halloween costume this year?
Whether or not those inflatable costumes are water-resistant (they’re generally not), frogs, unicorns, Pikachu’s, and chickens will likely see a wet Trick-or-Treat night as National Weather Service climate forecasters are expecting a wetter than normal end to October.
The climate prediction center puts out several products each month giving a glimpse into both precipitation and temperature “outlooks” as far in advance as a month. There are also seasonal forecasts, but for our purposes, the 2-week outlook posted on Oct. 16 gave a fairly certain chance of wetter than average weather in most of the Pacific Northwest through Oct. 30.
Temperatures were expected to be average, which, in late October calls for highs in the upper 50s. Portland’s warmest October 31 was 71 degrees set in 1954. We’re not expecting anything as toasty as that.
According to the Portland office of the weather service, about 52% of Halloweens are wet. The average amount of rainfall is about 0.21 inches. The last time Halloween was dry was in 2023. Ten years ago (in 2015) a plume of tropical moisture pounded Portland on Halloween night flooding MAX trains and causing all sorts of traffic nightmares.
It’s unlikely we’ll see rain anywhere near those amounts, but if we do, those in frog costumes should feel right at home.
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