Seattleites like to say that the dirty secret is that it doesn’t rain in Seattle as much as people think it does. This October, however, has not done anything to disprove that long-standing notion.
The record for most rain in the region in October was 8.96 inches, set in 2003. By this past Saturday, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport gauges had measured 9.06 inches of rain, setting the new record. But as you’ve probably been able to tell, that record isn’t done growing.
As of Monday morning, the gauges were reading 9.39 inches and there’s been steady rainfall all day since. A quarter- and a half-inch of rain is expected over the course of the day and by tomorrow we’ll know what the new October record will be going forward.
It’s not just the Seattle region who got it. Per Cliff Mass, most of Washington was above 200 percent of normal rainfall in the month with Eastern Washington getting over 400 percent above the normal rainfall. Seattle’s got nothing on Hoquiam, which set a new record of it’s own with 14.73 inches of rain, breaking a 60-year-old record. Olympia also broke it’s record with 10.87 inches of rain so far.
The reason for all of this abnormal moisture? A series of storms that seemed to hit the region one after another, including the mega-storm-that-wasn’t.
November is getting off to a rainy start as well as the forecast calls for rain for most of the days in the coming week.