PORTLAND, Oregon — The remnants of Hurricane Hilary are expected to bring soaking rain to eastern Oregon on Monday and Tuesday, and the potential for flooding. The Portland metro area won't see any rain.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a Flood Watch through Tuesday afternoon for southeast and eastern Oregon. That includes the John Day Basin, the Grande Ronde Valley and the northern and southern Blue Mountains. The NWS said areas can expect to see one to two inches of rain. The result could cause creeks and streams to flood, along with flood-prone areas like burn scars.
As of 10 a.m. on Monday, Ontario had picked up 1.38 inches or rain, according to KGW meteorologist Chris McGinness. Baker City had received nearly an inch of rain, Burns had 0.36 inches and La Grande had 0.24 inches.
“A bullseye of maybe one to two plus inches of rain in the Blues and the Wallowas of northeastern Oregon," McGinness said. "These are areas that, of course, have some recent burn scars from recent forest fires, and so you get that kind of rain in that kind of terrain and it is entirely possible that we have some flooding issues in that part of the state.”
The model below shows the rainfall potential through the end of Tuesday. Areas northwest of Medford, Bend and Pendleton will stay dry.
Traffic cameras from the Oregon Department of Transportation showed wet roads in eastern Oregon, including on Interstate 84 near the Weatherby rest Stop, about 32 miles southeast of Baker City.
On Sunday, Hilary weakened to a tropical storm and made landfall over the Baja California Peninsula, drenching the Mexican coast with rain. Then it moved across Southern California, becoming the first tropical storm to hit that region in 84 years.
Late last week, KGW's meteorologist were monitoring the impacts of the tropical cyclone on Oregon. At the time, the rainfall outlook from NWS' Climate Prediction Center showed the possibility for rain across Oregon including the Portland metro area. However, McGinness said on Monday that the rain will miss the northwestern part of the state.