Only three days in April have ever been wetter.
1.54 inches of rain battered Seattle today, making it the fourth-wettest April day on record since measurements were first taken at Sea-Tac Airport. The daylong downpour shattered the previous daily high of 0.63 inches from 1984 and brought this April’s rainfall total to a whopping 3.10 inches—more than the average precipitation for the entire month.
A typical April receives just 2.71 inches, but with the atypical rains of the past few days (we also logged 1.56 inches from Thursday through Saturday), we’ve surpassed this mark in just one week. The now soggier-than-normal April means that Seattle’s three-month stretch of below average rainfall—January, February, and March all came in drier than normal—is officially over.
Thankfully, the pounding rains we saw earlier in the day are also nearly toast, with just a few scattered showers roaming through the area now. Any lingering moisture should be out of here for good by midnight as we close the books on our soggiest day since November.
Tomorrow starts off with overcast skies, but things should turn partly sunny by lunchtime. With the cold upper level low that’s plagued us since Saturday finally moving on, temperatures will bounce back to the mid 50s—some ten degrees warmer than today’s un-springlike high of 47.
A ridge of high pressure keeps in the clear through the first half of Tuesday, before a cold front blasts through at night, dropping up to a quarter-inch of rain in the bucket. Additional showers are likely on Wednesday, with similar totals—meaning this month’s rainfall could approach 3.50 inches by mid-week.
Thursday promises to be drier, with scattered showers, plenty of sunbreaks and temperatures near 60 degrees. The stormy weather then comes roaring back on Friday, with high temperatures tumbling to the lower 50s as another wet system moves onshore.
What’s that old saying—April showers bring May flowers?
If that’s true, the whole city will be one gigantic garden by next month.
