Publication Date December 8, 2015 | Oregon Live

Monday's rain shatters 24-hour rainfall record for December in Portland

United States
Drivers cautiously proceed through Johnson Creek floodwaters on SE Foster Road near 111th Avenue. Heavy rain caused flooding and landslides in the Portland area on Monday, December 7, 2015.
Drivers cautiously proceed through Johnson Creek floodwaters on SE Foster Road near 111th Avenue. Heavy rain caused flooding and landslides in the Portland area on Monday, December 7, 2015.

So how wet is it? The record rainfall for Monday was a cheap .86 of an inch set back in on Dec. 7, 1996. Rainfall for the 24 hours ending at 2 p.m. Monday at Portland International Airport was 3.32 inches -- shattering the old 24-hour December record of 2.59 inches set on December 12-13, 1977. [Clinton Rockey, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Portland,] said rain fell at a rate of a half-inch an hour during the peak of the precipitation Monday morning, but began to taper off around 1:30 p.m. But the damage was already done in many places across the metro area, where high water closed roads, triggered landslides and sent rocks cascading down hillsides