So what was one of the driest cities in the United States for the month of August? Maybe somewhere in the desert southwest like maybe Tucson or El Paso? Nope, it was the Emerald City to our north that received no measurable rainfall making August 2012 its driest ever.
Only a trace of rain fell in Seattle. The previous dry months were .01 of an inch in 1974, .02 of an inch in 2006 and .04 of an inch in 2022. Vancouver is now in its 44th day with no measurable rainfall and, looking ahead at weather charts, I don’t see any rain coming for the next week at least.
According to records at Portland International Airport, this was the 14th driest August in Portland and, with no rain in sight, we could be up to the fifth driest if the dry streak continues. Their longest dry spell was from June 23 to Sept. 1, 1967. That would be 71 days! The fifth driest stood at 53 days set from July 5 to Aug. 26, 1980. We could very well tie that one. The trace of rain in Vancouver last month has occurred at least 12 times or so in the past 70 years. August is, after all, one of the driest months anyway.
The weather remains very nice into the next weekend with highs getting back into the 80s, maybe approaching 90 F. Overnights lows were once again down into the 40s early Saturday morning.