Despite a declared drought across the Pacific Northwest, 2015 was unusually wet for most of the North Olympic Peninsula.
Port Angeles and Sequim each had above-normal rainfall in 2015, but above-normal temperatures and a resulting lack of mountain snow led to diminished river flows and widespread water restrictions, according to the Western Regional Climate Center and National Weather Service.
Forks was warmer than normal, too, but came several inches short of its usual 10 feet of annual rain.
While 2015 statistics were not available for Port Townsend, the city’s backup water supply reservoir was tapped enough for officials to impose water restrictions for East Jefferson County.
“That drought was for the snowpack,” said Johnny Burg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
“We did have a dry stretch, but we ended up getting a lot of rain back toward December.
“The year finished off above normal as far as precipitation goes, but it was the snowpack [that caused the drought].”
Snowpack
The mild winter contributed to a dismal snowpack for the Olympic Mountains and other ranges.
Snowpack in the Olympics was 3 percent of normal in February and 1 percent of normal by May.
The Dungeness River flow fell to 110 cubic feet per second in late July, which triggered a call from the Sequim-Dungeness Water Users Association for its members to curtail water usage to the point of choosing to let some crops die.
Port Angeles
Last year was the warmest and wettest for Port Angeles since 1998 and warmer and wetter than most years since 1933.
With 12 days of data missing from the National Weather Service station at William R. Fairchild International Airport, the average high in Port Angeles last year was 59 degrees, Burg said.
The average low was 43.2 degrees, and the net average for Port Angeles was a balmy 51.1 degrees.
The historical average temperature for Port Angeles is 49.4 degrees.
“We were in an El Niño through most of this year,” Burg said.
Burg added that El Niño years are generally associated with warmer-than-normal conditions for Western Washington.
With 45.9 inches of precipitation in 2015, Port Angeles had its wettest year since instruments were moved to the airport in 1998, Burg said.
The average precipitation for the city is 27.1 inches.
Sequim
Last year, Sequim averaged 51 degrees and collected 23.1 inches of rain.
That compares to an average temperature of 49.3 and an average annual precipitation of 16.5 inches, according to historical statistics from 1916 to 1980.
During December, Sequim received more than 6 inches of rain, said Ann Soule, city of Sequim water resource specialist.
That broke a record for monthly rainfall since 1980.
The onset of precipitation late in 2015 recharged the flow of the Dungeness River.
Forks
The average temperature in Forks last year was 51.9 degrees, up from a historical average of 49.6 degrees.
But unlike other cities on the North Olympic Peninsula, Forks received less rain than normal, with 111.7 inches compared to the 117.9 inches it received on average from 1907 to 2015, according to the Western Regional Climate Center.
Jefferson County
In Jefferson County, the water level in the Quilcene basin-fed Lords Lake reservoir fell from 570 million gallons in July to about 250 million gallons in October, Port Townsend Public Works Director Ken Clow told the council last fall.
Port Townsend’s water is drawn from the Big Quilcene and Little Quilcene rivers, generally routing directly to City Lake in Chimacum for filtration and transport to the city.
If the rivers run low, as they did last year, Lords Lake is used as a reserve.
Stage 1 water restrictions that were put into place Aug. 3 were lifted in Port Townsend on Dec. 7.
By that time, Lords Lake had risen from 8 feet, 5 inches in November to nearly 20 feet.
Port Townsend’s normal annual temperature is 50.1 degrees and its average precipitation is 18.7 inches per year, according to the Reno, Nev.-based Western Regional Climate Center.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Olympic Peninsula News Group reporter Alana Linderoth and Peninsula Daily News Reporter Charlie Bermant contributed to this report.
