Rainfall 2024: Los Angeles, San Francisco, & Portland Beat Seattle

It has been almost a full year since Washington State has received normal precipitation, and officials are starting to get alarmed.

Seattle, Washington Currently has Less Rain than Los Angeles in 2024

Seattle is known for a large number of things like coffee, Microsoft, Grunge, and rain. I probably should have put rain first on the list because that might be the only thing most people know about Seattle. If I told you even 3 years ago that at this point in the year, Seattle would have less rainfall than Los Angeles, California, you would call me crazy. The strange thing is that it is actually happening in 2024, and it really is not even close. The fact is that the entire state of Washington has been suffering from drought for over a year with no change in sight. The center of Washington has always been relatively dry but now even the Washington coastal cities are dry.

How Bad is Washington's Drought in 2024?

The last year and current dry conditions for Washington State are due to an El Niño winter. When that happens, precipitation is spread over the southwest while giving drier conditions up north in Washington State. Los Angeles so far has received 15.77 inches of rain in 2024 with Seattle getting only 12.94 inches according to the National Weather Service. Normally Seattle would have more like 16-17 inches of rain by now, almost 8 or 9 more inches of rain than Los Angeles. The April numbers alone show Seattle around 2 inches short of the yearly average of precipitation with only about 1/2 inch so far. The all-time Seattle for "days in a row without measurable rain" happened in 2017 at 55 days. 2023 was the 2nd worst in Seattle history at 51 days. Will we break both of those records in 2024? I don't know for sure but it doesn't look very good so far.