SEATTLE -- For all the fame of the rain in this soggy city, conversations about climate often lead to local defensiveness: Seattle, which averages about 38 inches of rain annually, is far from the country's wettest big city. Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Miami and New York are just some of the others that get more rain.
The rain here has made its name mostly through persistence, not volume. But at midday on Sunday, near the end of what is typically Seattle's rainiest month, the official rain gauge at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was well past 14 inches and rising, having mocked the November average of about 5.9 inches and smeared the previous single-month record documented at the airport, 12.92 inches, set in January 1953.
Storm after storm has slammed the Puget Sound region, riding warm air from southern parts of the Pacific Ocean. Now some wonder whether the weather here might deliver the single-month record for rainfall since such data was first collected back in the 19th century. The mark, 15.33 inches, was set in December 1933, when the official rain gauge was downtown; the official gauge was moved to the airport in 1945. With just four days left in November and colder, drier air in the forecast -- snow, a rarity, fell in parts of the city on Sunday -- chances for setting the record have diminished but hope remains.
"The way I look at it, we might as well go all the way," said Carl Cerniglia, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Seattle.
This month's rains have done extensive damage to a region accustomed to ducking but enduring. Flooding in November killed at least three people in the Northwest, destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes, forced evacuations, ruined farms and washed out roads.
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Mount Rainier National Park, about 50 miles southeast of the Seattle region, has been closed since flooding damaged park roads and buildings and swept away an entire campground, Sunshine Point. Nearly 18 inches of rain fell in one 36-hour period, according to park officials, far more than hit Seattle.
This month's drama has stirred discussions about long-term implications. Some models of global warming predict more extreme wet weather in future Northwest winters, and more extreme dry periods in the summer. Just as November has seen record-breaking rain, this summer was unusually dry and hot.
Six of the 10 wettest Novembers on record in Seattle have occurred in the past 16 years, according to data compiled by the National Weather Service.
