The wettest neighborhood in Seattle is…
Oct 12, 2015, 2:09 PM | Updated: 9:18 pm
Seattle neighborhoods get more or less rain depending on the angle of the Olympic Rain Shadow. It also affects the amount of wind that hits from a storm, which can explain why one neighborhood loses power more than another during blustery days. (photo courtesy of Seattle Public Utilities)
(photo courtesy of Seattle Public Utilities)
Seattle gets plenty of rain, but one neighborhood takes the cake for receiving more than any other part of the city. The southeast corner of the city has been pegged as the wettest area of town, specifically Rainier Beach’s where it rains 40 inches per year.
That data comes from Seattle Public Utility’s rain gauges that are scattered on top of buildings all over town and measure precipitation and water quality.
Department Meteorologist James Rufo-Hill said the city has been collecting this kind of data for 35 years and it shows that each part of Seattle has its own unique weather.
“There are micro-climates within the city, so our hills are wetter than the valleys behind them,” Rufo-Hill said.
He said Seattle’s driest parts of town are in Sodo, downtown, and the waterfront because they are “behind the hill that is West Seattle.” She added that there’s also “a little rain shadow behind Magnolia and Ballard.”
Although it might seem hard to believe that one neighborhood could have much more rain than another, at 40 inches a year, Rainier Beach gets an average of seven more inches each year than the area around Myrtle Edwards Park. There’s also Green Lake, which can expect about 38 inches of rain a year, versus Sand Point, which averages 34 inches a year, or the University District’s 36-inch average annual rainfall.
And those micro-climates can have some interesting effects.
“Depending on where you live, your experience of a storm is going to be different than someone else living in the same city,” Rufo-Hill said. “We have these localized events. For example, the north end of town receives the Puget Sound Convergence Zone, which often provides localized intense rainfall more frequently than the south end. Sometimes a thunder storm will pass through and one part of the city has no idea.”
While the Northwest is expecting a warmer, wetter El Nino weather pattern this fall and winter, Rufo-Hill said the region still could see big rain and windstorms. And because of Seattle’s micro-climates, some neighborhoods might have to worry about other consequences, such as urban flooding and wind damage, more than others.
