Here is the record at Sea-Tac (01 indicates the hundredth of an inch--time is in UTC or Greenwich Mean Time). Turns out the measurable rain occurred just before midnight.
To show you how close it came, here is the total precipitation as of 6 AM around the area for Seattle Rainwatch. Zero precipitation (white) was so close...just across the Sound and even a few dry spots near the airport!
This is like losing a high-scoring basketball or football game by only 1 point....really frustrating! There is a significant chance this will be the only rain Sea-Tac gets out of the frontal passage. There is more precipitation over the downtown and northern sections of the city, and northern Puget Sound, due to a Puget Sound convergence zone that is now going on. The lack of precipitation is due to rain shadowing in the lee of the Olympics...something the high-resolution models forecast quite well. Here is yesterday's high-resolution run from the UW (24h rainfall ending 5 AM)....the rainshadow is quite obvious, as is the convergence zone band extending over north Seattle and the heavy precipitation over the western slopes of the Cascades.
And finally, remember that the roads may be particularly slippery today where it does rain--oil and dust and water could prove a potent lubricant on the road.
I expect Jim Forman of KING-5 to be out there spotlighting this road danger. And perhaps Ron Judd of the Seattle Times.
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| A miracle almost happened |
Wow, looks like areas around SeaTac received zero and we are on day 51 here in Fauntleroy with no precipitation. We've had .9" going all the way back to 6/24. It has been a long dry spell. Looking at the week ahead, it looks like we are going to be dry for a while yet.
ReplyDeleteWe was robbed! Thanks for reminding about that Xerox commercial though. I just watched it again on You Tube. Hilarious!
ReplyDeleteI measured about 0.35" in Shoreline over night, consistent with the other observations in the area. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/gmap.php?map=sew
ReplyDeleteA nice soaking!
Records -- bah! I loved hearing the rain and the wind last night and wish that today were as cloudy as predicted. My trees and bushes and plants need rehydration from the sky -- my hoses could never be sufficient. Heck, I even had to put up paper umbrellas up to shade the Japanese maples from the sun. I'm not necessarily looking forward to full-on winter, but, it coulda rained at night and left us sunny days.
ReplyDeleteI would trade a half way decent June for this dry spell. But, I am not complaining...
ReplyDelete2 miles west in normandy park we got a trace last night, but during the day monday the CVZN moved through and dropped .02" here, Seatac got .01" last night AND .01" monday afternoon. So it may have been broken then if not last night.
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