Posted on 01/10/2006 9:35:45 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SEATTLE – After 22 consecutive days of measurable rain, Seattle is closing in on a record so dismal even forecasters in this city famous for its gray skies are complaining.
With more wet weather predicted over the next several days, Seattle may soon break a record set in 1953. The city saw 33 consecutive days of measurable precipitation then – the most since the National Weather Service office there started tracking rainfall in 1931.
"Usually we have a few days of rain and one or two days of cloudy and dreary days and then it rains again and that's the way it goes," weather service meteorologist Johnny Burg said Monday. "We're not getting our dry days in between – just having one system follow another."
A trace of rain fell Dec. 18, but the real wet weather started the following day.
Since October, when the weather service's "weather year" began, Seattle has had nearly 18 inches of rain – about 2 inches above normal and well above this time last year, when the city had received 11 inches of rain.
Mudslides blocked railroad tracks north of Seattle for most of the weekend as well as a highway near Port Orchard on the Kitsap Peninsula. State Route 166 was closed indefinitely in both directions Sunday because of damage from a mudslide.
It was miserable in the mountains Monday, too. Forecasters said heavy snow falling amid gusty winds in the Cascades would continue through Tuesday, with about a foot falling every 12 hours.
The Olympic Mountains also were getting slammed, with 6 to 11 inches predicted every 12 hours through Tuesday afternoon.
Seattle natives often joke that it's easy to spot the tourists and transplants when it's raining because they're the ones using umbrellas.
Not Nora Bailey, who moved to Seattle from northeastern France about 10 years ago. Bailey said the rain doesn't bother her as much as the unyielding grayness.
"It's been a little depressing, but you know, what are you going to do?" the 32-year-old said as she ate at a Pike Place Market bakery.
Richard Comer, 43, who moved to Seattle from the Fresno, Calif., area four years ago, went without a raincoat Monday. Cleopatra, the pit bull-lab that kept him company, wore a yellow slicker.
"I'm getting pretty used to it, so I don't really notice it that much anymore, Comer said.
Though Seattle is famous for its rain, the city's average annual rainfall from 1970 to 2000 was 37.07 inches, compared to 49.71 inches for New York City.
Well that was a dirty trick!
I do love it here (I'm rural though and detest Seattle) and the trees I love need all this rain. I wouldn't really trade our rain for dust, lack of shade, hurricanes and unbearable heat other places have.
But there is something to be said for the snowbirds who summer here and head south for winter. Our summers are beautiful, and not so hot that we spend summer indoors. Our winters are... well... wet.
Well, now when you ask the 7-year old how she likes Seattle, she says "I hate it! I want to come home!" Of course, The Sister is now gaining weight and hating life too. Gotta love all that rain, huh?
Well, I'm sorry they don't like it. I love it here but I hate to see people trapped here against their will. That would be depressing ;~D
Meanwhile, Phoenix closing in on 51 consecutive days of no rain.
Can someone from Seattle go there and take the rain with them?
I love it here. When it rains in the winter, that usually means snow in the mountains, which means good skiing, which means a frothy pint of Guinness in the lodge apres ski, which means one happy Pissant. :o)
send in Sean Penn with his row boat
Washington State is a slice of heaven. Now if I could just get the Seattle liberals to move to Brokeback Mountain...
I'll be moving back in February/early March.
Wimp.
We must have a party. It may take that to renew you to any resemblence of a New Yorker. LOL
I'm confused about the 'record' of number of rainy days.
I moved from the Seattle area in 2000. I recall the winter of either '99 or '98 there was a 'record' rainfall of 90 days in a row. It may have been cloudy days in a row, but it was a record of some sort, I thought it was rain.
Do you remember this?
Can't say I do.
I now live in San Diego and a season ticket holder to the Seahawks....
It looks like I got out of the PNW in just the right time...
The Hawks have had few rainy game days the last few years but this year we've seen a couple- I saw that the latest forecast was for rain on Sat. I'll make sure to pack my Seahawk poncho Friday !!
Go Hawks!!!
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