It’s so rainy, even the locals are starting to notice

Published 9:00 pm Monday, January 9, 2006

SEATTLE – After 22 consecutive days of measurable rain, Seattle is closing in on a record so dismal, even forecasters in this city famous for its gray skies are complaining – albeit politely.

With more wet weather predicted over the next several days, Seattle may soon break a record set in 1953, when there was 33 consecutive days of measurable precipitation – the most since the local National Weather Service branch started tracking rainfall in 1931.

“Usually we have a few days of rain and one or two days of cloudy and dreary days and then it rains again and that’s the way it goes,” National Weather Service meteorologist Johnny Burg said Monday. “We’re not getting our dry days in between, just having one system follow another.”

A trace of rain fell on Dec. 18, but the real stuff started the following day.

Since the weather service’s “weather year” began in October, Seattle has had nearly 18 inches of rain – about 2 inches more than normal and well above this time last year, when the city had received 11 inches of rain.

Mudslides blocked railroad tracks north of Seattle for most of the weekend and a highway near Port Orchard on the Kitsap Peninsula. State Highway 166 was closed indefinitely in both directions Saturday because of roadway damage caused by the mudslide.

The U.S. Geological Survey said more mudslides in some counties were possible because the land is saturated.

It was miserable in the mountains Monday, too. Forecasters said heavy snow falling amid gusty winds in the Cascades would continue through today, with about 1 foot falling every 12 hours.

The Olympic Mountains were also getting slammed, with six to 11 inches predicted every 12 hours through this afternoon.

In the lowlands, the weather service said flooding was possible, but not imminent, for rivers in parts of Western Washington, including Pierce, Thurston, Lewis, Pacific and Grays Harbor counties. Flood watches were also issued for several counties in southwest Washington and northwest Oregon.

Native Northwesterners joke that it’s easy to spot the tourists and transplants when it’s raining. They’re the ones sporting umbrellas.

Not Nora Bailey, a dental hygienist who moved to Seattle from northeastern France about 10 years ago. Nibbling on a piece of bread she got at a Pike Place Market bakery, Bailey said the rain doesn’t bother her as much as the unyielding grayness.

“It’s been a little depressing, but you know, what are you going to do?” said Bailey, 32. “I think all that you can say is: ‘Merde, alors. Il pleut, encore.’ (Loose translation: Ah, shoot. It’s still raining.)”

Richard Comer, a street guitarist who moved to Seattle from the Fresno, Calif., area four years ago, went without a raincoat Monday. Cleopatra, the pit bull-lab that kept him company, wore a yellow slicker over her rusty-colored coat.

“I’m getting pretty used to it, so I don’t really notice it that much anymore. I mean, you know, it’s raining, but it always rains. Like today is not a rainy day,” the 43-year-old Comer said, holding his hand out to catch some of the mist. “Today is just kind of a moist day.”

Things were pretty quiet at the market’s seafood counter where, on busy days, tourists snap pictures of salmon being tossed from the cases to the scales. The pace of the day was nothing unusual for this time of year, said Ryan Rector, 22, one of the shop’s salesmen.

Still, he wonders if the rain is bumming people out.

“I do notice the people that come in are kind of dragging … as opposed to when it’s sunny in the summer, you know. People are always coming in laughing, smiling.”

Though Seattle is famous for its rain, it gets far less in an average year than many places. The city’s mean annual rainfall from 1970 to 2000 was 37.07 inches, compared to 49.71 inches for New York City.