For years I’ve heard about the ‘rain shadow’ over Sequim, WA and just accepted the fact. From here:
Okay. Perfectly reasonable.
But since I’ve been in SoCal I’ve been checking the Washington’s weather every day. Looking at radar maps I’ve noticed that rain cells seem to be over the bottom end of Vancouver Island and flow over Seattle. The rain seems to pass right over Sequim and the Dungeness Valley. And yet the rain shadow exists.
The Olympic Mountains shield the area from storms coming from the west and south. Is it just that weather patterns this time of year tend to come from the north, and I’m just noticing them because this is the time of year that I’m paying attention?
First, the storms that have dumped tons of rain on us this month have come from the southwest, the “pineapple express.” They are so full of rain, that they make it over the Olympics and soak us equally.
The storm today, is a low north of us, that’s pulling winds up from the south. I don’t really understand how the rain comes from the north but the wind is out of the south.
The reason for the odd weather approaches is from the El Niño we’re facing this year.*
*My information is from Jeff Renner who I have only marginal confidence in.