August 14, 2014

No Drought in Western Washington this Summer

The rain this week has broken the drought in western Washington.

Here is the precipitation at Seattle Tacoma Airport compared to normal (blue line) for the past 12 weeks.  Almost exactly normal!
Or perhaps you would prefer a larger view showing the % of average rainfall for the entire summer--June 15th to yesterday.  Western Washington are greens and light blue:  a bit above normal.  Nevada, parts of Utah, and Arizona were also above normal..by a lot.  This was caused by the very active SW monsoon this summer.  Not so good over central California.

What about the last year? Western Washington and Oregon are one of the few areas of the West Coast near normal  California is a disaster area and eastern WA is dry.

 The question you may ask is about the upcoming winter.  The latest Climate Prediction Center forecast is for a wet southern Ca and dry NW:  the typical expectation during an El Nino year (see graphic)



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2 comments:

  1. Salty DogAugust 16, 2014 at 5:37 PM

    Not sure what map I"m looking at but the % of average rainfall for the entire summer--June 15th to yesterday; Western Washington are greens and light blue. The map I see not all of western Washington is green and light blue, yellows south of Olympia and west to the coast.

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  2. Tim LoftonAugust 19, 2014 at 9:55 AM

    I lived in western WA for 25 years. I've lived in the Houston area for almost three. I now have a different definition of "drought" than I did living there. I'll take that version anytime.

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