Laurel Mountain (Oregon)


Laurel Mountain is the fourth highest peak in Oregon's Central Coast Range with an elevation of. The peak is located in Polk County west of the city of Dallas. In 1997 it was labeled the wettest place in Oregon, and in 1996 it set an all-time calendar year rainfall record for the contiguous United States with.

Climate

Laurel Mountain has a hyperhumid maritime climate, on the border between Mediterranean, oceanic and subpolar oceanic. Rainfall is extremely heavy between October and April, and even in the dry months of July and August fog is very frequent and prevents soils and vegetation from drying out appreciably. In November 2006 the mountain received over of rain – six days were lost due to gauge overflows – and in the record wet December 1996 throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Despite winter temperatures being above freezing on an average 72 of 89 afternoons – and minima above on 31 mornings during a typical winter – precipitation is so heavy that snow cover in an average January reaches, whilst the record seasonal snowfall is between July 1998 and June 1999. Since 1978 extreme temperatures have ranged from on December 24, 1983 to on July 22 of 2005, though in the thirty-five years of record only fourteen minima below have been recorded.