Can you imagine getting 255.41 inches of rain in one year? Well, that's what happened in northwestern Washington State, making it the wettest place in the Lower 48 in 2020.

What You Need To Know

  • Parts of the Pacific Northwest recorded over twenty feet of rainfall in 2020

  • Fort Lauderdale was the third wettest spot in the country

  • Tampa was near average for the year, recording 46 inches

The Olympic Rain Forest is often the wettest spot in the Lower 48, where getting over 200 inches of rain in one year isn’t unusual. The Olympic Mountains have a front row seat to the potent jet stream that relentlessly carries wet storms into Western Washington for much of the autumn and winter.

As the storms' westerly winds slam into the windward side of the mountains, the rising air wrings out much of the storm's rainfall potential like a sponge. Storm totals can easily reach 8-10 inches.

The second wettest locale of 2020 was also in the Pacific Northwest. The coastal range of Oregon had 129 inches of precipitation.

In Florida, there was a report of 129 inches near Fort Lauderdale. That was good enough for the third wettest place in the Lower 48. Nearby, the Fort Lauderdale Airport measured 95 inches of rain, and an amazing 33 inches above normal.

In the Tampa Bay area, there were no extremes or surprises. Tampa was drier than the last several years with 46 inches of rain, which is actually normal based on 30-year averages.

As you can see on the maps, much of California was dry, especially Northern California.  But, much of the Southeastern US had above-normal rainfall. In some cases, record rainfall was seen in several Southern cities.