Yes, this is a much-wetter-than-average January in Olympia
It’s not all in your head: This has been an especially wet month in the South Sound — complete with flood watches this week — and forecasters say there’s no end in sight.
“It’s pretty much just going to be a parade of systems moving through every 12 or 18 hours for the foreseeable future,” National Weather Service meteorologist Dustin Guy told The Olympian.
Yeah, it’s winter in the Northwest, so it rains, but this isn’t the average January. Guy looked into some Olympia-specific statistics for context:
- In the average year, there will be 20 days with measurable precipitation in January in Olympia, he said. In 2020, there has been measurable precipitation here every day so far.
- In the average year, Olympia sees 8.02 inches of precipitation in the entire month of January. As of Jan. 23, Olympia had gotten 10.73 inches — and counting. That’s over 2.5 inches more precipitation than the average year, and Guy said to expect “to add significantly to that in the days to come.”
Guy said western Washington had a “fairly dry period” in November and early December, and “now we’re sort of making up” for it.
“It’s our rainy season, and we’re locked into it right now,” Guy said.
Western Washington should expect a new system moving through Saturday morning, then a brief break Saturday evening before a possibly wetter and windier system on Sunday. That pattern is likely to repeat again after that.
With that forecast comes increased risk of landslides and river flooding.
The soil’s already saturated from melted snow and recent rainfall, and ongoing rainfall this weekend will “put extra pressure on soil instability,” increasing the threat of landslides, a special weather statement out of NWS reads.
A flood warning was in effect Friday for the Skokomish River at Potlach in Mason County and the Satsop River near Satsop in Grays Harbor County.
Most rivers in western Washington, however, had already crested or are close to it, NWS wrote in a Friday morning briefing. Levels are expected to lower, gradually, over the next day or so — but the persistent rain could cause river levels to rise again.
For those planning to venture into the mountains, the Northwest Avalanche Center expects dangerous avalanche conditions over the weekend — updates and conditions for specific areas can be found online at nwac.us.
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 9:36 AM.
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