Weather in Portland in March

A hard month. March is a hard month in Portland, and worth planning around. You should expect rain on 20 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

March ranks 8 of 12 in Portland: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 20 of the month's 31 days, 6 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 12.3 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 25 °C and the coldest night fell to -3.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 55 mm — roughly 31% of the month's rain in one day.

March is moderately variable: 42 mm in the driest year against 323 mm in the wettest, around an average of 178 mm. Roughly two Marchs in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 87%, which at 12.3 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How March sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 2.4 °C warmer than February, and April adds another 2.7 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in March

11.8 hours of daylight, gaining 1.6 hours across the month. That is between Portland's extremes of 15.7 and 8.7 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 27.7 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

March in Portland versus nearby

If Portland is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Eugene is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Seattle is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days.

So: March is a compromise. July is 49 points better and is what Portland is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Portland

See all twelve months in Portland, or where else to go in March.