Is Seattle Really The Rain Capital Of The U.S.?

Is Seattle Really The Rain Capital Of The U.S.?

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Story Published: Nov 17, 2002 at 8:18 AM PDT

Story Updated: Mar 13, 2008 at 1:13 PM PDT

By Steve Pool

SEATTLE - Well, sort of.

Seattle ranks behind a lot of cities when it comes to annual rainfall totals. Chicago, Dallas, and Miami, among others, all get more rain per year than Seattle's 37 inches.

But that's because while it indeed rains a lot here, it doesn't rain very heavily. It could rain all day here, and we'll pick up maybe 0.10" of rain. Meanwhile, a 20-minute thunderstorm in Miami could drop 0.75" of rain.

On the other hand, our area is still the champ when it comes to number of cloudy days. Seattle ranks in the top 5 nationally 226 cloudy days per year behind Anchorage, Forks, Astoria and Olympia. We're in the top 20 with 140 days of measurable rain.

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