2006 Record November Rainfall
500mb geopotential height anomalies the last 30-days showing the anomalous trough over the Gulf of Alaska that's been producing the rainy weather.
After one of the driest summers in state history, record setting rainfall fell throughout western Washington. Early in the month, a slow moving "pineapple express" storm brought heavy rains and mild temperatures causing record setting high river flows, peak river crests, and widespread flooding.
One of the places affected by the floods, Mount Rainier National Park, is working to re-open the park as the flooding washed out campgrounds, main roads, and the main power source to two of the park's visitor centers, while creating new channels and shorelines. For further information and amazing photographs of the damage visit the Mt. Rainier Images of the Flood of 2006 website.
After surveying the flood damage, the governor declared 11 Washington counties as federal disaster areas, to assist families who have been displaced by the floods and to rebuild the communities that have extensive damage. Despite the rainfall that continued in the days following the flood, cooler temperatures helped to alleviate the flooding as the rain fell as snow in the mountains with the lower snow levels.
After only 6-days of breaking the November record of 11.62", Seattle (as reported from Sea-Tac Airport) broke the record for being the wettest month ever with over 12.92" during the early evening of November 21. Similarly, 1-day prior, Olympia had also broken their record for the wettest November with 16.57". To put things in perspective, Seattle and Olympia have had almost as much rain in the month of November as some of the wettest places on the coast average for November. Forks, annually the wettest place in WA gets an average of 17.72" in November and currently has 28.24 " which is above normal for them, but not likely to break any records by the end of the month. The wettest place in the U.S., Mt. Waialeale, HI, on average receives 36.33" in November. See the table below for current November rain totals and records for various locations in the state.
There are still 2-days left in the month with a storm moving in on the last day, which means other locations may be breaking records by the end of the month.
Floods and record rain is not the only things mother nature threw at Western Washington for the month of November: