Olympia area goes nearly three months without substantial rainfall
Olympia has had a remarkably dry 85 days, and it looks like rain won’t come until the later half of September.
The region saw a record 71-day dry streak between June 16 and Aug. 25 that was only interrupted by a barely measurable 0.01 inches of rain on Aug. 26, said Matthew Cullen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
That streak surpassed the previous rainless record of 55 days from the summer of 1960, he said. The region has not seen measurable rain since Aug. 26 and there is no rain in the seven-day forecast, he said.
Although this dry spell has remained persistent, the past three summer months have seen a middling amount of rain. Cullen said the Olympia region saw 3.31 inches of rain between June and August, nearly all of which came down in June.
The summer’s rainfall ranks as the 33rd wettest season over the past 74 years, Cullen said. Data from the NWS indicates the Olympia area has so far accumulated 29.11 inches of rain this year. That’s still higher than the 27.87 inches recorded on average by Sept. 8, per the data.
“I think it bears out from looking at the number of days in a row and also the total amount of rain that certainly it is noteworthy for that reason,” Cullen said. “It was a dry few months even in our driest time of the year.”
Nearly all of Thurston and Lewis counties has been experiencing drought as of Aug. 31, according to the United States Drought Monitor. This level is associated with increased fire danger and low river flow.
The western portion of Pierce County has been experiencing a similar level of drought, but the eastern areas have only suffered “abnormally dry conditions,” per the USDM. Meanwhile, King, Mason and Grays Harbor counties also share that designation.
However, eastern Washington has been burdened with exceptional and extreme drought conditions, which can lead to unprecedented wildfires and poor crop yields.
Though the summer months have been dry, Cullen said the Climate Prediction Center expects the odds to favor cooler temperatures and above-normal precipitation in the latter half of September.
“That’s not to say that it’ll get wet every day or we’ll have big systems every day, but there is that potential as we get later in the season,” Cullen said.
Temperatures are expected to reach highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s through Sunday with partly cloudy skies, according to the NWS.
