Oregon is becoming warmer, more prone to drought and its weather patterns are becoming more irregular, or harder to predict.

The state’s annual average temperature has increased by 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century, and is likely to warm up as much as 7.6 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, according to the latest report published by Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University.

While the report indicates regions such as east of the Cascades will receive slightly more rain during the winter months, some parts of the state are also headed toward longer and more severe annual droughts during the warmer months of the year, which could impact sectors of agriculture that rely on the rain.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean those changes will affect the agricultural industry equally throughout Oregon. And it doesn’t mean Oregon will turn into the Sacramento Valley of California. People and farmers are adapting to the challenges of a changing climate.

Those changing weather patterns, and what they mean for agriculture and food systems in Oregon, are the topic of a new episode in OPB’s “Superabundant” series.

Food and agriculture reporter Alejandro Figueroa recently joined OPB “Morning Edition” host Jess Hazel to discuss that new exploration of climate as an ingredient in the state’s food systems.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

Jess Hazel: First thing that pops into plenty of people’s minds when they think about climate change is higher temperatures — and high temps came up when talking about a shift in where things grow in the Pacific Northwest. Can you share a few examples?

Alejandro Figueroa: When we spoke with experts at the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at OSU, they said Oregon is becoming warmer with more likely extreme heat events during the warmer months — so basically heat waves. And the overall temperatures are going up across the state and globally.

But there’s also some nuance. One thing to understand is that Oregon is incredibly diverse when we’re talking about its ecological regions: there’s nine of them.

Hazel: Wow, nine different zones.

Figueroa: Some of them have similar climates, some have varying weather patterns. When we spoke with the researchers, they told us, for instance, the changes we see in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon will likely be different than the changes we see in the Willamette Valley.

All of this is important when we’re talking about farming because, depending on how well adapted that crop is to handle those changes in temperature, it could really alter yields.

One example that comes to mind is onions in Eastern Oregon. With prolonged heat, you see the size of that onion decrease, for example.

Climate change increasingly taking a toll on Oregon farmers, ranchers

Hazel: Climate includes so many different factors. We talked about higher temperatures, let’s talk about water. What’s changing in the relationship between the agriculture industry and water?

Figueroa: What climate experts told us is, you’re going to see shifting rain patterns, so more erratic weather. Maybe one spring you’ll have the ideal temperature, the ideal rain to get out into the field. But then maybe next year you’ll either have weather that is too wet or or too dry to get that crop going.

For example, immediately east of the Cascades, models indicate that it will likely rain an extra 1 to 2 inches during the wet wetter months — which is actually a big deal, I found out, in a region that usually gets less than 12 inches of rain annually.

And that’s important because wheat farmers there, some of them rely on just the rain to irrigate their fields. So a little bit more water is nice.

But then those same models show that it will get hotter and drier in that region, potentially putting certain varieties of wheat into heat stress or affecting the quality of that grain.

Hazel: Another element here — an increase in extreme weather events like heat domes and ice storms that we’ve seen in the state in the past few years. How are people in the ag industry adapting to more extreme weather?

Figueroa: Jess, one thing that we took away from this reporting is that farmers are for the most part always adapting.

So while maybe in Eastern Oregon, where it’s likely going to get hotter and you’ll have more prolonged days of hot weather, you’ll be seeing wheat farmers, for instance, working to keep as much water in their soils as they possibly can by using cover crops.

Those are crops that you don’t necessarily harvest. They just help the soil stay covered, and they also naturally add nutrients back into that soil.

Or maybe you’ll see the use of more practical things like the use of shade cloth or better irrigation systems.

Oregon summers are getting hotter. This farm is using the sun to adapt

Hazel: You spoke to lots of different folks, climate scientists and experts on food and agriculture, about the paths they see forward. Seems like, despite the challenging circumstances, there is a lot of optimism there. What kind of future do they see when it comes to considering climate in our food systems?

Figueroa: One thing that we asked climate scientists was, "are regions of Oregon going to turn to some of the regions like the Sacramento Valley or the Napa Valley of California?" And the answer is: not really.

That doesn’t mean farmers will not change or adapt. They have to, but it’s not as simple as a farmer, you know, will decide to plant peppers instead of tomatoes.

There are other things that determine whether that crop can grow in a specific region other than just climate, like the infrastructure or whether there’s the transportation to process that crop, or whether that farmer has the right labor or the equipment.

So with shifting weather patterns, you will maybe see different wine grape varieties that can tolerate drought or maybe apples that can survive in an earlier freeze, but Jess, it doesn’t necessarily mean that agriculture will entirely go away.

Hazel: Thanks for sharing your reporting, Alejandro.

Figueroa: Thanks, Jess.

See more from OPB’s online series about Northwest food systems and ingredients, "Superabundant," at opb.org/superabundant.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/06/26/how-oregon-foods-adapting-climate-change/