What does June rain mean for Western Washington's 2024 summer?

June rain is not unique in Western Washington, but heavy atmospheric rivers are perhaps not as common. That's what dumped rain across the region last weekend and set records.

"We had two atmospheric rivers, and they were really winter-like storms, and not something we usually see in early June," Deputy State Climatologist Karin Bumbaco told Seattle Now. "With that said, we’ve had plenty of wetter-than-normal Junes before, so it wasn’t really the rain that was unusual to me.”

RELATED: How are atmospheric rivers affected by climate change?

The heavy wind stood out more to Bumbaco. Still, the National Weather Service noted a few rainfall records that were broken for Sunday, June 2. Seattle recorded .65 inches of rain (beating its previous record of .48 inches set in 2001). Olympia had 1.08 inches of rain (much more than the .48 inch record set in 2010). NWS records go back as far as 1953.

Atmospheric rivers are common, natural weather patterns. In short, it's how water from the tropics in the Pacific Ocean evaporates up into the atmosphere, and travels to North America where it falls down as rain or snow. You may have also heard this referred to as the "pineapple express." When a lot of water heads our way, we note it as an atmospheric river and expect to get dumped on. These are mostly expected in winter, and not so much during the first week of June, which is what just happened.

“For the future, we are expecting to see more atmospheric rivers and more winter rain in a warming climate, we’re not really expecting to see those in June. If anything, we’re expecting drier summers in the future," Bumbaco said.

With a heaping, fresh dose of rain, could this have any implications for the upcoming summer, and the drought that Washington state currently faces?

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Looking ahead, Bumbaco had a few points to consider.

• The recent rain means that Western Washington will probably record a wetter-than-normal June this year, which strays from forecasts published in March/April. However, the June/July/August forecast, as a whole, is still expected to be warmer and drier than normal. This comes as Washington has much lower-than-normal snowpack in the mountains, which many communities rely on for summer water. This is the reason Washington is in a statewide emergency drought.
• Despite the below-normal snowpack that has put the state in an emergency drought declaration, Seattle’s water supply is looking good. The city was able to store more rain than usual over the past winter to help maintain a buffer in its reservoirs. Also, recent wetter and cooler weather caused less water consumption.
• As for summer wildfires: A higher-than-normal wildfire season is expected for Western Washington, while Eastern Washington faces normal fire risk this year.
• Wildfire smoke: While California's fire risk is reduced this year, British Columbia faces elevated fire risk this summer, and could send smoke down into Washington state over the summer months.
• El Niño is switching over to La Niña right now, but that likely won't affect the summer months. This is more likely to impact winter weather and Bumbaco doesn't expect this factor to be a "drought buster." Winter could see more precipitation, however.

The National Weather Service's long-term weather forecast for August, September, and October 2024 still predicts warmer-than-normal temperatures for Western Washington, with equal chances for below or more-than-normal rain.

Listen to Bumbaco's full conversation with Seattle Now about the weather ahead here.

KUOW's Dyer Oxley contributed to this article.