One of our viewers, Rick, asked me just yesterday how much rain we’ve actually had the last couple of months. Rick is a light-scaper (someone who lights up your landscaping) and is constantly outdoors. He remarked “It seems like the rain hasn’t stopped!”
And Rick is right -- it hasn’t, at least not much. So I did some data digging as to how much rain we really have had in those gauges and for how long and it’s pretty significant. All my data is for the official site at Bush Airport, so your actual rain bucket may have more or less. First, take a look at just how many days it has rained the last two months (not counting today and we will likely see at least a few showers):
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That’s right -- 38 days out of the last 60 have rained! So how much rain these last 60 days (May 1- June 29)?
You read that right. If you add up all the rain we’ve had from Sept. 22 to April 30, it’s right at the same amount that we’ve had since May 1! So in just two months we’ve had more rain than the previous seven months before -- that is one way to look at it! Remarkably, we only had 8.09″ of rain from January 1st to April 30th of this year! So almost three times that amount has fallen since May 1st! In fact, we are 3.5″ above normal rainfall for the year because of the last couple of months.
Good Problem to Have?
As you’ve heard, the western USA is in serious water trouble -- they can’t get any rain there to fill a thimble. And the relentless 100+ heat in the northwest continues to the weekend. The current Drought Monitor shows the “water weary” versus the “water worried”:
Those folks in the red are worried! If we could only share a little of this rain. And the chances for a big dry out here don’t look to be very strong. In fact, the climate forecast for July-August-September calls for better chances than not that our rainfall will be above normal:
So keep the umbrella handy and send out your best vibes for a somewhat dry holiday weekend -- we’re going to need all the luck we can get!
Frank