2026 is off to a beautiful start weather wise! February is usually a quiet month in Portland, with the exception of the amazing Winter Light Festival; a great time to bundle up, brave whatever weather we have, and get out and enjoy the rich culture here! Our favorite tours this time of year are the Chocolate and Coffee walking tour and the full-of-drama Ghosts of the Willamette walking tour. Of course it’s always great to get into the easiest ways to get introduced to the city with our walk around or our brand-new Streetcar around Portland if the weather works for you. And maybe you should know about our Coffee Roasters of the Eastside walking tour?
Is it a good month to ride a bike? The answer is always yes! Try our Bike Around Portland for a nice overview of the city or our great Street Art of Portland bike tour for a few hours of color-soaked fun.
February is a month that usually has moderate temperatures compared to other cities that experience chilly winters — it’s just the rain and the shorter days that can be a surprise. This February is very typical, with highs up to 54-58F or 13-15C. We usually see 4-6 inches of rain over the course of the month, and more days are rainy than not. Those boost our waterfalls to roaring; they truly have a life of their own! And our mosses are absolutely vibrant and glowing.
The forecast this month is looking chilly but not snowy, with temperatures forecast to drop severely below 32F/0C only occasionally and some lovely periods of dry weather with little rain periods. Mushrooms burst from every fallen tree and emerge from berry canes laid bare by the falling thimbleberry and hazelnut leaves. We call this time of year Twilight weather; art gives us the bright spots of color, and our imagination is full of the memory of when our city was host to vampires and werewolves.
It’s an exciting time though, because post-the holiday of Imbolc, we begin to see a few tiny blossoms emerge and often see wildlife enjoying the promise of spring. Your guide might be scanning the side of the pathways for the buds of crocuses, wild violets and plum blossoms. All of our tours should be operating without any major weather-related obstacles, but we will reach out to you if you have booked and weather conditions change. We never cancel for rain, although if we see some kind of unusually rainfall forecast, we might reach out to check in with you.
If it does snow — it’s a wonderland! However, most of our tours cannot run in the snow; a few like the Forest Park tour are ok if your footwear is up to the challenge. If the snow comes, we will be closing the tours that cannot operate.
We will contact you to chat about the conditions prior to your experience if more extreme weather that might impact your experience is likely. We recommend good boots or shoes with traction and plenty of warm layers, but it is not winter style cold even when we get a bit of high elevation snow. More about what to wear here!