MYNORTHWEST NEWS

Seattle area slated to break 103-year-old dry weather record

Aug 25, 2017, 4:00 PM | Updated: 4:06 pm

While Texas is getting hammered with Hurricane Harvey’s rain and wind, the greater Seattle area is dry and warm.

So warm that this will be the first time in 120 years worth of records, Seattle’s high temperatures in July and August will be 70 degrees or warmer, according to the National Weather Service.

And it’s not just warm, but dry. It’s one of the driest summers on record, according to University of Washington Climatologist Cliff Mass. Since it rained in mid-June, Mass said on his blog on Thursday that only .02 inches of rain fell in July and August.

The record low for July-August precipitation was .02 inches in 1914 and .03 inches in 1967, according to Mass. With no rain expected for the rest of the month, Mass says we’re likely experiencing the driest summer in over 100 years.

Good snow pack last winter and tons of rain this winter and spring means local water supplies are “in good shape,” Mass says. And let’s not forget our winter rains broke records. Seattle measured 44.7 inches of rain between October and April.

Meanwhile, the amount of rain that Seattle has received so far is expected to dump on parts of Texas this week while Hurricane Harvey sits overhead. That’s about 24 inches.

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