I’m sure you’ve heard about the incoming heat this weekend. Is it warm? Is it hot? Is it too hot? All good questions, and get ready, because it’s coming.
That heat, of course, comes with dry weather, which is no surprise. We’ve talked a lot about the low snowpack and the implications for the summer. We also finished 2025 way below average for yearly rainfall. We are close to normal so far in 2026, only down a little more than .10″ of rain so far.
The average rain for the month of April is 3.18″, and we’ll finish below average at 2.77″. It’s not much in the grand scheme, but the bigger picture may tell a different story.
Out of the past 40 months, we have finished with below-average rainfall in 30 of the 40 months, with April 2026 the 30th. That’s not the best news, considering we are pretty much done with the rainy season.
The May-September set of months is the five driest on average, with the next month with an average rainfall in Seattle of over three inches after the month of April is October! (July is statistically the driest month on the calendar for the Western Washington lowlands.)
The May outlook by the Climate Prediction Center calls for a better-than-normal shot of warmer and drier weather than average in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, the Northwest has the strongest “signal” for a warmer weather pattern than anywhere in the nation for the month of May.
We’ll monitor melting snowpack (from our meager winter snows) and how fuels for wildfire dry out as we go through the month, as we could contend with earlier fire starts than in typical years.
Still, most of the fires that begin in and near lowland areas are caused by humans, so as the dry weather looks to take hold, use caution to prevent anything that could start a fire!
In the meantime, enjoy the warm weather as we get a real stretch of “July” in May!
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