A very wet October after all
In just four days, one of the driest Octobers on record for Baltimore has become a very wet one. And it's still raining at 8 a.m. Here's the radar loop. But then, if your roof leaks, or your basement floods, you already knew that.
Nearly 2.5 inches of rain fell through the gauges at Baltimore-Washington International Airport yesterday, and another 1.5 inches has fallen since midnight. That has lifted the month's total from 0.41 inches on Tuesday, to 5.74 inches at this writing. It's not close to the record. And, curiously, it barely stands out among what has become a long string of wet Octobers in recent years.
But it sure has come as a welcome surprise. Here's how it stacks up so far against recent Octobers:
2007: 5.74 inches
2006: 5.75 inches
2005: 9.23 inches (the record)
2004: 1.26 inches
2003: 5.82 inches
2002: 6.01 inches
The 30-year average: 3.16 inches
Here are some totals from around the region.
The radar loop shows the fire hose that's been playing on us since Tuesday night, with a steady stream of wet, tropical air from the Gulf and the Atlantic, is moving off this morning. Once it's gone, the forecast for the rest of the weekend, and well into next week, looks a whole lot more like the first three weeks of October. Sunny and dry, and a bit cool for this time of year.
As welcome as this has been, we are still 7 or 8 inches short of precipitation for the year. The wells and reservoirs still need more recharging over the winter if we're to avoid serious problems in the spring and summer. And the long-range forecasts still call for dry, mild weather through the coming winter.
