Seattle area ‘over a month ahead’ of a typical year’s rainfall to start 2021
Feb 2, 2021, 5:02 PM
A pedestrian walks along N 34th Street, past a statue with a rain bonnet on its head in Fremont. (Photo by Robert Sumner/Getty Images)
(Photo by Robert Sumner/Getty Images)
The Seattle area could be on its way to a record year of rainfall after a wet start to 2021.
Seattle typically averages around 5.25 inches of rain in January, and almost 37.5 inches combined across all 12 months. This year, the area got 8.75 inches in January — for those doing math at home, that means it saw 23% of its average rainfall in a single month.
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Things didn’t appear to slow down much when the calendar turned to February, either. On Monday, the National Weather Service’s forecasting office based in SeaTac saw 0.94 inches of rain, setting a new record for that day, and marking the third wettest day of the year behind Jan. 12 (1.5 inches) and Jan. 2 (1.2 inches).
The first day of February ended with 0.94 inches of rain here at WFO Seattle, a new record for the date. It's was the third wettest day of the year so far at the office, behind only Jan 12 (1.50") and Jan 2 (1.21"). #wawx
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) February 2, 2021
As of Tuesday evening, the Seattle area has seen 10.16 total inches of precipitation in the first 33 days of 2021. In a typical year, the total combined rainfall for all of January and February combined is just over 9 inches. By March 9, that number typically sits around 10.2 inches.
“We are over a month ahead on rain,” the NWS noted.
The region is slated for a brief break from 2021’s near-constant rainfall on Wednesday, before showers return on Thursday and Friday. Another three rain-free days are on the docket after that, followed by at least a week more of rain in the Seattle area.
