Soggy no more: Seattle turns switch with record dry streak

You won’t hear any complaints from Helena Baker.

“I love it,” said the financial counsellor, who has been getting outside more with her kids, working on her tan and generally enjoying the lack of rain. The wet spring made her so depressed, she said.

Mario Kohsmann, however, prefers Seattle’s cooler seaside climate. He moved from New Orleans more than a decade ago partly for that reason.

“It’s horrendous for me,” the 46-year-old said of the dry streak. “This summer has been unseasonably warm. I don’t mind rain.”

It comes as unusual heat last week sent temperatures climbing to triple digits in parts of the Pacific Northwest, a place where many people don’t have air-conditioning.

Despite the dry streak, 2017 still remains above normal for rainfall, partly due to downpours during winter and spring.

Seattle measured 44.9 inches of rain between Oct. 1 and April 30, making it the wettest such period, according to the National Weather Service.

Most of the state has seen little rain in July and that pattern has continued into August, Bond said. Almost the entire state since July 1 has seen less than 2 per cent of its normal precipitation, he said.

The Pacific Northwest has a Mediterranean climate, so the region typically doesn’t get a lot of rain in the summer, he said, “but we do get some.”

“Even though we can’t blame climate change, these kinds of things, it’s a wake-up call about the sort of things we might have to deal with,” Bond added.

Construction worker Jamal Robinson will take what dry days he can get.

“Right now, I’m soaking up the sun because you know the rain is coming,” he said.

Phuong Le, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Soggy no more: Seattle turns switch with record dry streak

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