April 2026 Weather In The PNW

[Phil]

This is a good read re: western megadroughts:  https://ocp.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/drought/medieval.shtml

[NWbyNW]

Some great insight from Felton of the NWS Seattle office the other day.

Seattle's monthly rain total was 2.77 inches just
0.41 inches below the normal of 3.18 inches. Why it might have
seemed like a dry April is because of the number of days it
rained. In Seattle there was only 8 days with measurable rain.
This ties for the third lowest number of April rain days in
Seattle in the 82 years of records at Seattle-Tacoma airport.
The two years with less rain days, 1956 with 5 and 1951 with 3.
There have been 4 years with 8 rain days, 2026, 2021, 2020 and
1998. The normal number of rain days in Seattle in April is 15.

Since the start of the year there has been 55 days with
measurable rain in Seattle. This is the lowest January through
April rain day total since 50 days in 2005. The normal number of
rain days for January through April is 67.