Courtesy of the National Atlas

<< Signs of Global Warming?

03/18/08 - Precipitation Map

People tend to assume that if you are on the North Olympic Peninsula, then it is raining. This isn't actually true. If you look at the map, you can see the well known Sequim rain shadow, and you can also see that Port Angeles, towards the west is not all that much wetter. In fact, unless you are actually in the mountains, in which case all bets are off, it doesn't really start to rain until you get west of Lake Crescent.

Each color gradation represents a difference of ten inches of rainfall per year, so it can be quite dry around Port Angeles, even when Forks and the West End are getting soaked.

Keywords: science, atmosphere