For a month bent on topping the charts, this March sure went the extra mile.
After clinching the record for Seattle’s all-time wettest March early Friday afternoon, another inch-plus fell through Saturday night, leaving us with a staggering 9.44 inches this month—leaps and bounds above the previous high-water mark of 8.40 from 1950. In the process, we also bagged our rainiest month in seven years (not since November 2006 has Seattle received a bigger soaking) and broke a daily rainfall record for the third time in the past three weeks.
Now, to dial things down a bit…
We’ll spend the final hours of our historic March on the dry side, with ample sunshine and temperatures perched in the upper 50s to near 60 degrees. Overnight, a smattering of high clouds will prevent the mercury from falling too low, with most places staying above 40 degrees through the early morning hours.
We climb back up to the 60-degree threshold tomorrow under generally clear skies. Further south, some moisture sneaking up from a weather system over Oregon could kick off a few light showers around Olympia—but any meaningful rain should remain south of there.
The forecast stays unchanged for Wednesday, with sunshine, a few clouds and highs leveling off near 60. With an average high for early April of 56 degrees, that’s actually a notch or two above normal.
Thursday dawns partly sunny, but clouds will return quickly by midday as a cold front races ashore. By nightfall, it should be raining lightly across all of Western Washington, with totals around a tenth of an inch.
A heavier slug of moisture shuffles through on Friday, making for a damp, overcast day, with a round of follow-up showers on Saturday. While that’s not exactly an ideal way to start the weekend, it’ll easily beat the downpours of the past few days, as rainfall amounts look to stay in the more normal quarter-inch range.
Hats off to a weather system that, for once, doesn’t go above and beyond.
