January Rainfall: December, Times Three (Almost)

.10″

A tenth of an inch.

That’s all the rainfall we need between now and 11:59 p.m. tomorrow to officially make this month’s rainfall triple that of last December. Through yesterday, Seattle has recorded 6.62″ of rain–an inch above normal, and oh-so-close to three times December’s paltry 2.24″. (Edit: a brief look out the window, followed by a quick trip to the Seattle National Weather Service page, reveals that we’ve picked up .03″ in the past hour. Guess the rain has a vendetta against this blog…)

A tenth of an inch–from one red stripe to the next–is all
Seattle needs to make January three times as wet as December

We’ll for sure get that .10″ by the end of tomorrow, as the last of the January rainmakers slides across the metro area tomorrow evening. Forecast models paint about a quarter inch of rain in Seattle by the end of Jan. 31, with a little extra spilling over into the wee hours of February. Considering the model trends for the first ten days of the month, February should be jumping for joy–as the .10″ or so that falls on the 1st might be it for February precipitation for quite some time.

Once Wednesday morning’s rain ends, the promised drying trend begins. Clearing skies will allow temperatures to soar into the 50-degree range Thursday, Friday, and Saturday–assuming we don’t get socked in by fog each morning. Right now, it looks like the winds will be just strong enough to keep the fog in check–just don’t be shellshocked if your Thursday dawns foggy and 35 degrees. Even areas that do see thick morning fog will still manage to warm up well into the 40s once the February sun takes hold.

At this point, our dry, sunny stretch looks to continue into Super Bowl Sunday and well into next week, as a large dome of high pressure parks itself over the Northwest. Perhaps December might not be the only month that January triples in rainfall…