Time and Weather in Medford, Oregon

Medford, Jackson County, Oregon is located in the PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) time zone, UTC/GMT -7 hours. The sunrise is at 07:14 and the sunset at 18:44 for the moment of the mid-October 2018. The length of the day is 11 hours 29 minutes. Greenwich, UK is 8 hours ahead of Medford, Oregon.

As Medford seats in the ‘rain shadow,' the dry side of the mountain area, of the Rogue Valley, the climate here is less vulnerable to precipitation. Thus, Medford, Oregon, region is much drier than, for instance, the Willamette Valley nearby.

As the city lies in the Mediterranean climate area, dry summers and a bit more rainy winter are characteristic for that state as a whole.

There are approximately 57 afternoons during the summer when the temperature reaches 32.2 °C or 90 °F and only 11 afternoons when the temperature exceeds 37.8 °C or 100 °F. The highest temperature was recorded in August 1981, when the temperature was at a constant of 43.3 °C or 110 °F for four days in a row.

During the winter there are about 69 mornings when the temperature falls below freezing. Usually, the period of freezing temperatures occurs from the end of October until the end of April.

The temperature inversions, which in meteorology is defined as the deviation from the norms of atmospheric property, are characteristic for Medford. Those inversions may last for several days and usually lead to the fog occurrence that reduces the visibility to less than five feet. That natural phenomenon might occur due to the lowest wind speed of the metropolitan area. Therefore, the fog may last for several weeks and lower the overall air quality.

Due to the abovementioned geographical position of the city, the snowfall is rare during the winter and reaches only 0.09 meters through the whole winter months. In 1955-1956, the snowfall level reached a maximum of 0.79 meters. That period is also considered as the ‘rainy year' due to the high level of the precipitation that has reached approximately 848.6 millimeters per year. However, the following was the driest year since the beginning of the data collection in 1911 as the rainfall level was only 235.7 millimeters in 1957. December 1964 is considered the wettest month of all as the precipitation level was 323.1 millimeters; meanwhile, it does not usually exceed the mark of 254 millimeters per month.

The lowest temperature recorded in Medford was on December 13, 1919, when the temperature was −23.3 °C or −10 °F. The highest temperature was filed on July 20, 1946, when the temperature had reached 46 °C or 115 °F.