Seattle shows off why it has relatively little annual rainfall
It rains a lot in Seattle. Stop us if you've heard that before. And many of you know the trick to stump your non-Northwest friends that despite our rainy reputation, Seattle gets less rain per year than several other cities.
But Wednesday was such a perfect illustration of how Seattle gets its rainy moniker without being close to getting the most rain per year. In fact, this chart showing annual rainfall averages for 275 major weather stations across the U.S. (taking out the non-50 state locations) by the National Climatic Data Center shows that Seattle is in a tie for 134th -- 134th! Barely 50th percentile -- for most rain per year at 37.07". (What's interesting: The city we're tied with is Portland -- to the one-hundreth of an inch!)
Factor in number of rainy days per year though, and Seattle is near the top at 155.
Locals will tell you it's because our rain comes in drips and drizzles, and that fact is on display Wednesday.
In the 14-hour period from midnight to 2 p.m. Wednesday, it rained in Seattle for about 12 1/2 hours of it. Total rain accumulation? 0.09".
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, it rained 0.77" in 22 minutes as a thunderstorm rolled through.
That's how Atlanta ends up with, on average, 50.20" of rain per year -- 13" more than Seattle. But Seattle averages 40 more days with measurable rain.
What gets me how the grey days seems to never let up. I find the other side of the State much nicer weather. A lot more sunny daysÂ
What's that ugly blue blob in the pic?
Adding to the the negative feeling about the weather is the regularity with which the weather forecast goes south. This past Monday I recall the KOMO forecasters telling us in the mid-50s and sunny over the weekend. As late as the first weather forecast I heard in the 6am hour today (Thurs) it was dry all weekend, but foggy to start with (of course no promises when/if it clears off). Now the weather forecast has backtracked even more - rain 'at times' on Sunday. By the time we get to Sunday it will be rainy most of the day probably. With accuracy like this, why bother with a forecast?
Get more accurate forecasts elsewhere. KOMO is not my 1st choice when it comes to accuracy.
Â
No offense Scott. Yer articles are top notch. The prognostication is lacking however.
Seattle doesn't have a rain problem. It has a gloom problem.
@maxamillion I never thought Seattle was a rainy city but have always considered it an "icy" city. I've been here since 1997 and never have understood why people here are so introverted. I dont know how many times I have talked to people; friends and people I just met and said "Hey we should get lunch sometime" and never heard from them again.
It can rain very hard here too. Remember our 3 inch day we had recently?Â
Â
Why aren't we near the top of raining cities with respect to annual rain? Let's look at Atlanta. They average about 13 inches of rain during June, July, and August.Â
Â
Seattle? We average 3.2 inches of rain during June, July, and August.Â
Â
We have a wet season and a dry season. Atlanta's wettest month would rank about 3rd or 4th on our scale of wettest months. Nobody can really touch our November, December, January period.Â
 @lakeview thats true. The summer in the PNW is amazing. The fall/winter sucks, and spring is absolutely beautiful when the sun shines.
Â