Saturday, May 07, 2011

WHAT "Rainshadow"??


May 7, 2011. First, I'm not complaining about our weather. No, no. Not when I turn on the TV and see the Mississippi River flooding and Texas dry as tinder (the part that hasn't burned yet, that is), and utter, horrible tornado devastation over so much of the southeast. No, our weather in the northwest is beautiful. But the name of this blog, and our famous weather pattern, is "rainshadow." Port Angeles, only 15 miles to our west, gets substantially more rain than we do. Well, that has changed this winter/spring. The Olympic Mountains (always snow covered, including glaciers at the center) have almost 200% of average snowpack now. Sequim (often called Sunny Sequim, as if that's our town's full name) has a little more than 8 inches of rain so far this year, and Port Angeles has a litle LESS than 8 inches. Strange.
Sequim's usual is 12-15 inches per year, 12 last year. And even though it seems very wet so far, a dry summer might bring us closer to the average. It has been chilly, though. Crops and flowers are coming in late. But hey -- at least they're coming in! Look at poor Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, etc.
My rhododendrons haven't bloomed yet, but I'll post a picture from last May. The dog is Bailey, our mostly black Lab. She's a sweet girl. We rescued her in September 2009. We figure she'll be 5 in September this year.

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