The Oregon Climate Change Research Institute is charged, via House Bill 3543 (2007), with biennial assessment of the state of climate change science, including biological, physical, and social science, as it relates to Oregon and the likely effects of climate change on the state.
The Oregon Climate Assessments reflect the generous contributions and expertise of OCCRI’s extensive network of university, public, and private partners. Content is peer-reviewed, and often serves as technical input to the quadrennial National Climate Assessments.
The seventh Oregon Climate Assessment was released on 8 January 2025.
Full assessment (all content, 63 MB; download appendices A, B, and C separately)
Executive summary (two pages)
• • • Individual chapters • • •
State of climate science
Trends in climate and advances in climate science
Changes in the 2023 U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Map
Impacts of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation on Oregon’s weather and climate
Climate-related natural hazards
Projected changes in Oregon precipitation (and Appendix A)
Projections of freezing rain and ice accretion in the northern Willamette Basin, Oregon
Oregon drought history and twenty-first century projections
Economy
Wildfire impacts on the economic value of privately owned timberland
Potential economic impacts of a major wildfire smoke event in Oregon (and Appendix B)
Natural systems
Carbon sequestration potential from afforestation and reforestation in Oregon
Connecting climate and community science through Oregon Season Tracker
Built environment and infrastructure
Floating offshore wind energy infrastructure
Trade-offs in planting trees in urban and suburban areas
Public health
Effects of climate change on transmission of infectious disease from animals to humans
Scenarios of wildfire smoke exposure, health impacts, and associated costs in Oregon during the early and mid-twenty-first century (and Appendix C)
Social systems
The emergence of climate litigation
Reimagining the wildfire challenge and local solutions
Integrating farmers’ perspectives into climate modeling
Responses of Oregon’s wine industry to climate change
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Previous Oregon Climate Assessments were released in 2010, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023.
Fleishman, E., editor. 2023. Sixth Oregon climate assessment. Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. DOI: 10.5399/osu/1161. Click here for just the executive summary.
Dalton, M.M., and E. Fleishman, editors. 2021. Fifth Oregon climate assessment. Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. DOI: 10.5399/osu/1160. Click here for just the executive summary.
Mote, P.W., J. Abatzoglou, K.D. Dello, K. Hegewisch, and D.E. Rupp, editors. 2019. Fourth Oregon climate assessment report. Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. DOI: 10.5399/osu/1159.
Undergraduate students in graphic design at Oregon State University built a web version of the fourth Oregon Climate Assessment.
Dalton, M.M., K.D. Dello, L. Hawkins, P.W. Mote, and D.E. Rupp. 2017. The third Oregon climate assessment report. Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. DOI: 10.5399/osu/1158.
Dalton, M.M., P.W. Mote, and A.K. Snover, editors. 2013. Climate change in the Northwest: implications for our landscapes, waters, and communities. Island Press, Washington, D.C. DOI: 10.5822/978-1-61091-512-0.
Dello, K.D., and P.W. Mote, editors. 2010. Oregon climate assessment report. Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. DOI: 10.5399/osu/1157.
