The sound of rain and sight of snow-capped mountains are indeed signs of a wetter-than-normal winter, according to the National Weather Service.
But precipitation isn’t even close to a record on the North Olympic Peninsula, said Brent Bower, a weather service hydrologist.
This season’s rainfall on the Peninsula ranges between just above average to the top third of rainfall records, Bower said.
In Forks, where records have been kept since the late 1800s, 62.50 inches of rain had fallen during the “meteorological winter,” which is measured from Dec. 1 through the last day of February, according to National Weather Service records.
The average for the period is 48.24 inches of rain, with a record high of 86.83 inches in 1998-99 and a record low of 22.73 inches, 1914-15.
“In that record-high year, they got almost 30 inches of rain a month for three months,” Bower said.
Bower noted the record year — 1998-99 — was a La Niña year that shattered many rainfall records.
That includes the record of 51.08 inches of rain at Quilcene, on the east side of the Peninsula, where the rainfall was plentiful this year but did not approach a record.
In Quilcene, the weather service recorded 30.71 inches of rain during meteorological winter.
The Quilcene record-low rainfall was 6.03 inches, recorded in the winter of 1927-28.
Several records fell in Seattle this year, Bower said, adding it was unusual for Seattle to reach record rainfalls without the Forks area also achieving records.
The difference this year was that the storms came mostly out of the south and stayed to the east, while in most years, the storms mostly come from the west and pass over both cities, he said.
Snowpack
The snow in the Olympic Mountains is just about normal, Bower said.
On Tuesday, the four Snotel snow measurement stations in the range averaged 102 percent of average.
The Buckinghorse Snotel site, which measures snowpack in the southern Elwha River watershed, had 102 inches of snow, or 87 percent of average, on Tuesday.
The Waterhole Snotel site, in the Morse Creek watershed east of Hurricane Ridge, had 71 inches of snow, or 112 percent of average.
Dungeness Snotel site, in the Dungeness River watershed, had 15 inches of snow, or 88 percent of average.
In Jefferson County, the Mount Craig Snotel site, in the Dosewallips River watershed, had 71 inches of snow, or 106 percent of average.
Long-term forecasts indicate the spring will be warm, with continued higher-than-average rainfall through the end of March, Bower said.
He said there is more than enough snow for summer water supplies, with at least another six weeks of snow to accumulate.
“The above-normal temperatures will continue to plague us and increase water demand and quicken snowmelt,” he said.
However, Bower noted, it is unlikely the region will experience another dry, low-river-level summer like the summer of 2015.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
