In a weather year that lived by a theme of go big or go home, Friday kept to the 2017 script. Saturday, however, is expected to play it safe.

Portland International Airport recorded 0.52 inches of rain on Friday; 0.16 inches is normal for Dec. 29, according to the National Weather Service.

There's a 30 percent chance of showers before 11 a.m. Saturday with a high near 48. Partly cloudy skies and a low of around 32 are expected Saturday night followed by sunny skies and a high near 39 on Sunday, the last day of 2017.

Through Friday night, the airport has recorded 45.80 inches of rain for 2017, the most for any of the past five years, with 43.35 inches in 2016; 40.40 in 2015; 40.11 in 2014; and 26.72 in 2013, according to the weather service.

A "normal" precipitation year in Portland is 36.03 inches. The wettest year, for years the weather service has data, is 1996 with 63.20 inches; the driest, in 1985, with 22.48 inches.

This year "was a year of extremes with numerous ice and snow events at the beginning of the year followed by a very wet spring," said Evan Bentley, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Portland, who noted that February was the wettest February on record; March was fourth wettest; and April was sixth.

But 2017 will not be remembered for just for sogginess. The year may be better remembered for the dry conditions that preceded a rash of wildfires throughout the state.

And that can be blamed partly on the early-year precipitation, Bentley said in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLIve recapping 2017.

In the theme of extremes, 2017 included the third longest dry streak of no measurable precipitation on record at the airport: 57 days, ending Aug. 12, and one of the longest dry stretches in December -- 12 days, ending Dec. 15.

The early-season precipitation "allowed for plenty of ... brush growth which fueled an active fire season once the rain stopped falling in early July," he said. "In addition, there was a relatively active thunderstorm season for the Cascades which helped spark many of the forest fires."

The Eagle Creek Fire, the most notable of Oregon's fires for Portland-area residents, "came down to extremely poor timing," Bentley said, "as the fire started during the driest part of the summer and a few days before the strongest east winds of the summer came through the Columbia River Gorge. Bottom line: Even in a very wet year, there can be extended periods of dry weather."

--Allan Brettman

503-294-5900

@allanbrettman