High regional precipitation marked 1948
Do you know where the wettest and driest places on the planet are?
The wettest is Cherrapunji, in the Khasi Hills of Assam in northeastern India, which holds the precipitation record for 12 consecutive months. From August, 1860 through July of 1861, precipitation at Cherrapunji measured an amazing 1,041.78 inches, nearly 87 feet of rain.
The town of Lloro, Colombia, claims that more than 1,100 inches of precipitation fell during the calendar year of 1936, while the U.S. was suffering through the peak of the 1930s Dust Bowl.
The wettest place in the 50 states is along the eastern slopes of Mount Waialeale at 5,075 feet, on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The average annual precipitation on Mount Waialeale during the past 60 years has been 462.47 inches. Pu’u Kukui, on the island of Maui, at 4,125 feet above sea level, averages 413.61 inches a year and holds the U.S. annual rainfall record of 705.44 inches set during the El Nino year of 1982. Pu’u Kukui also holds the monthly U.S. record for most precipitation established in March of 1942 with 107.34 inches.
The wettest spot in all of North America lies to the southeast of Little Port Arthur in Canada’s province of British Columbia. Henderson Lake averages 256.43 inches of precipitation a year.
The U.S. claims the wettest year on record set in 1976, when Alaska’s MacLeod Harbor weather station gauged an incredible 332.26 inches of rain. Of this total, 71.80 inches fell in the month of November, also a North American record.
Here in the Inland Northwest, the most precipitation the Spokane International Airport ever recorded for an entire year was 26.07 inches back in 1948. Coeur d’Alene measured its all-time annual high precipitation total of 38.77 inches in 1996.
The most arid spot on Earth is Chile’s Atacama Desert, about 18 degrees south of the equator. Often years pass without any measurable moisture being gauged at a small village named Arica. A neighboring town, Iquique, once went an amazing 11.5 years without rain, from November of 1945 to May of 1957. The normal annual rainfall at Arica is just 0.03 inches. Iquique averages a mere .07 inches.
The polar regions are likewise extremely dry. The South Pole Station in Antarctica in the past five decades has averaged only 0.08 inches of melted snowfall. Arctic Bay, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, averages only 0.09 inches of moisture in a calendar year. The driest year ever was 1949 with 0.05 inches of precipitation.
The longest rainless stretch on record in the country occurred at Bagdad, Calif., when no measurable rain fell for 767 consecutive days from Oct. 3, 1912 to Nov. 8, 1914, more than two full years!
Locally in the Inland Northwest, the driest year on record for both Spokane and Coeur d’Alene was 1929, the year that the stock market crashed. Only 7.54 inches of precipitation was measured in Spokane in 1929 compared with the annual normal of 16.67 inches. Coeur d’Alene, much wetter with an average rainfall since 1895 of 26.11 inches, gauged 15.18 inches in 1929.
Expect dry weather ahead
Speaking of dryness, the rest of July and August will see limited amounts of rainfall across our region. Only scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms will pop up in the late afternoon and evening hours.
We’re already experiencing some big heat this week across the Inland Empire. This particular heat wave should break by this weekend as temperatures begin to cool down. Another round of very hot weather with readings near the 100-degree mark should arrive late this month or early August. Early September should be very warm as well.
By mid-September, the weather pattern is expected to be much cooler and wetter than normal.