Heavy rain to soak Oregon's Willamette Valley, foothills with snow on Cascade passes

Another round of heavy rainfall will hit Oregon over the next few days, but it’s probably not enough to bring flooding, said National Weather Service meteorologists.

Around 1-2 inches of rain is forecast to soak the Willamette Valley and foothills Friday to Sunday, while the mountains could get 2-4 inches.

Mountain passes could also see around a foot of snow, according to a winter weather advisory issued by the National Weather Service on Friday.

NWS meteorologist Rebecca Muessle said the system of rain isn’t an atmospheric river, but rather a particularly juicy front coming in from the south.

“It’s bringing a lot of moisture and is pretty warm, but it’s fast moving and isn’t taking on the structure of an atmospheric river,” she said.

Muessle added that while rivers will rise, flooding isn’t expected to occur, largely because of how dry Oregon had become following a “ flash drought ” that sucked the soil dry during April.

“The rivers will bump up, but right now we’re only seeing a 5% chance that rivers even make it to ‘action stage,’” she said.

Overall, this is just a helpful hit of rain for water supply, irrigation, gardens and wildlife before drier weather returns later next week. The eight to 14 day forecast shows warmer and drier conditions than normal across most of Oregon.

This rain system is also helpful because it’s forecast to bring up to an inch of rain east of the Cascades where the drought has persisted.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 16 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast . Urness is the author of “ Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon ” and “ Hiking Southern Oregon .” He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Heavy rain to soak Oregon's Willamette Valley, foothills with snow on Cascade passes