Updated: December 1, 8:00 AM PDT
This post has been substantially updated on Wednesday morning, December 1.
One chart has been replaced by five (5) charts with further explanations and comparisons.
Data has been updated to include precipitation totals through November.
Vancouver’s annual precipitation totals have been corrected to state the 1981-2010 30Y average for Vancouver International Airport as 46.8 inches. In the original blog post, it listed the 30Y annual average for Vancouver’s Harbour climate station site. This site has a considerably higher average than the airport.
On Figures 2 thru 5 a new reference line has been added for the recently released 1991-2020 climate precipitation normals for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. As you can see, the most recent 30Y normal reference line show it has been wetter in Seattle in recent decades.
All figures subject to correction and, if required, will be noted.
Click on any chart to expand.
The Pacific Northwest almost always experiences rainy Novembers. This year precipitation rates have been high, if not extraordinary. Heavy flooding occurred in northwest Washington and southern British Columbia in mid-month. Since then, rains have levelled off a little but are accumulating nonetheless. This weekend we are expecting more rain in Seattle. Bellingham and Vancouver will likely see even more.
So how does this start to the rainy season compare to others? The charts below shows several comparisons:
Figure 1 sets the table for this data and subsequent charts and shows the cumulative precipitation traces at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SeaTac) for the water years 2002-03 through 2021-22 (to-date). Water years are calendar constructs which help visualize the wet season precipitation totals vs. dry season in the Pacific Northwest. Typically a water year begins on October 1 of a given year and runs through September 30 of the following year. Looking at cumulative precipitation traces in this time frame usually show distinct wet / dry season patterns.
Figure 1 also highlights the 2006-07 water year. Seattle experienced an extraordinary level of precipitation in November 2006, the most of any traces for SeaTac in this set of data. The blue box in this and subsequent charts highlights for comparison the level of precipitation versus the first 61 days of the 2006-07 water year and corresponds to the months of October and November.
Figure 1. Record-setting Oct-Nov at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, 2006.
Figure 2 highlights the amount of precipitation SeaTac has received so far this water year. As mentioned in the updates, the 1991-2020 climate normal reference trace has been added to this and subsequent charts.
Figure 2. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport cumulative precipitation for Oct-Nov, 2021.
Figure 3 shows the accumulated precipitation trace (red) for Bellingham International Airport. Bellingham is approximately 90 miles north of Seattle and was hard hit by the mid-November flood.
Figure 3. Oct-Nov accumulated precipitation for Bellingham International Airport compared to SeaTac totals, 2021.
Figure 4 shows the accumulated precipitation (blue) trace for the Vancouver International Airport weather station. Vancouver is approximately 50 miles north of Bellingham. In the last few days of November, Bellingham has seen more rain than at Vancouver’s airport climate station.
Figure 4. Vancouver International Airport and Bellingham International Airport cumulative precipitation totals for Oct-Nov, 2021.
Figure 5 compares the accumulated precipitation at Vancouver’s airport in it southwest corner to its Harbour climate station located near Stanley Park. This station is near the core of downtown Vancouver. The station at Vancouver’s Harbour has seen far more rain this water year than at the airport.
Figure 5. Vancouver International Airport and Vancouver Harbour precipitation totals for Oct-Nov, 2021.
Preliminary observations:
Seattle and Bellingham have had similar precipitation totals through this period though they arrived at this point in slightly different manners. Over the past 48-96 hours Bellingham has received substantially more rain than Seattle.
The precipitation totals at Vancouver International Airport for October-November are similar to Bellingham’s.
The precipitation totals witnessed at Vancouver’s Harbour climate station far exceed totals in the Washington cities and at Vancouver’s airport. I don’t know if this level of disparity is typical. However, with regards to the comparison with Washington cities, Vancouver typically sees approximately 46.8 inches of rain per year; Seattle sees – with the new 30 year climate normals – about 39.3 inches of precipitation per year.
Sources:
[1] NOAA / NWS Climate\Observed Weather: https://www.weather.gov/wrh/climate?wfo=sew for SeaTac and Bellingham data.
[2] Canadian Government Historical Climate Data: https://climate.weather.gc.ca/historical_data/search_historic_data_e.html
ABOUT THIS BLOG / FULL DISCLOSURE
I am not a meteorologist, climate scientist, data scientist, geologist nor hydrologist. I am simply a (retired) engineer who has some familiarity with numbers, basic statistics and probability statistics who enjoys looking at readily available public data and trying to make sense of things. I enjoy building data visualizations from data I find much like others enjoy working daily crosswords or sudoku puzzles. Local weather, climate and hydrology science are complex subjects. Take what you read and find here with this in context.