By Ken Stern 

Not much August rain

 

September 9, 2020

SMOKE GETS IN OUR EYES – “It was a historically tragic day of significant fire growth that lead to multiple evacuations, homes and businesses lost, dust storms, traffic accidents, roads closed and thick smoky air across large parts of the state. Fires in Central WA made large runs, traveling many miles ... Heavy smoke is still being generated from the Inchelium and Cold Springs / Pearl Hill fires.” Reported Tuesday from https://wasmoke.blogspot.com/. Tuesday sunrise, Chilberg Rd. – Photo by Nancy Crowell

August was a dry month. The 0.64” was half this century’s average of 1.24”. There were 11 days without rain starting Aug. 9, then two rain days, with the most rain all month, 0.23”, Aug. 21, followed by eight days without rain.

August matched July, which had 0.60” of precipitation. Pretty dry.

Except for 0.10” rain on Aug 30-31, there have been 12 days without rain. More than 0.10” rain fell twice, 0.16” on the sixth and 0.23” Aug. 21.

2020 was the fourth driest August in the last 10 years, but only the ninth driest since 2000. Five of those years have been since 2011. Less than 1” of rain has fallen 12 times this century and in seven of the last 10 years.

In 2017 0.04” rain fell, the second driest year of the century. There has been nine years of more than 1” of rain, with 2.9” in 2016, the second most since 2000. The 6.3” in 2004 was the most rainfall in this period.

Five years between 1.2” and 1.7” fell. In three years there were between two and three inches. The outlier month was in 2004, with 6.29 inches. The driest year was 2012, when 0.01 was recorded.

The century pattern is toward less rain.

Temperatures averaged 0.6 degrees below average, though the average minimum was 1.6 degrees below this century’s average. The daily average temperature did not reach 60 degrees 11 days, pulled down by morning lows in the forties those days. It dropped to 42.6 degrees Aug. 25. The coolest day of the month was the 12th, with a low of 50 degrees and a high of 68 degrees, for an average of 58 degrees.

The average high of 73.4 was just below the 20 year average. It almost reached 90 degrees once, at 89 degrees on the 16th, the middle of month’s three warmest days, blanketed by highs of 79 and 81 degrees respectively.

August was a bit cooler than July with almost the same amount of rain.

Data measured at the WSU Mount Vernon Memorial Highway weather station.

 

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