Seattle is very thirsty right now

The Seattle area is thirsty and could really use a nice, cold rainy day. According to the National Weather Service, summer 2022 was the driest on record.

The Weather Service also notes that of the half an inch of rain that fell over the summer, about a third of it came on Sept. 16. So, it's been pretty dry.

It's important to note that by "Seattle," the National Weather Service generally means the Seattle area. A lot of measurements happen at Sea-Tac Airport south of the city. In this case, the data speaks to "Total precipitation June 21 to September 21 – Seattle Tacoma area, Wa."

The data caught the attention of Dr. Meade Krosby with the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group.

Dr. Krosby points out that last fall was the wettest on record.

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Fall 2021 was also the second year in a row that we had a La Niña season. The wet Northwest weather was not caused by La Niña alone, but the pattern does cool things down a bit. And it's looking like we'll have a third La Niña this year, which is pretty rare. How that will influence the weather is not yet clear. What is known is that the Northwest is likely to be about a degree cooler than normal this winter.

A previous headline for this story stated "The Northwest." It has been updated to focus on the Seattle area.