Wilmington Receives 100" of Liquid This Year

With about two weeks left in the year, Wilmington, NC has actually reached one-hundred inches of accumulated precipitation. The local National Weather Service office has been keeping the official tally. https://twitter.com/NWSWilmingtonNC/status/1073951645166419969 The threshold was reached early on Saturday, December 15. According to the National Weather Service Office in Wilmington, NC, this is the new record for wettest calendar year tally. This surpasses the previous record by a long shot. The old record was 83.65" set back in the 1877! Wilmington's rainfall tally through December 15, 2018 The average (since records have been kept) since 1871 is about 52 inches in a given year. However in the last 30 years that number has risen to about 57 inches in a given year. Nonetheless, this year has yielded more than 40 inches above the average! How did we get here? The month of May 2018 helped Wilmington jump into position for wettest year on record. It goes back to record rainfall for the month of May. Then came Hurricane Florence in September, jumping the September rain total to over 23" in Wilmington. Of course, Hurricane Florence helped Wilmington achieve its wettest month ever (of any calendar month!)   Various other storm systems kept the rain total climbing throughout the year. This year Wilmington has recorded the most number of days ever with daily rainfall greater than 1.50, 3.00, and 4.00 inches. Total rainfall from just the 17 wettest days this year tallied  58.96" --more rain than in an entire typical year!  Wilmington's average annual rainfall is 57.61".   Wilmington isn't the only east coast city to have an incredibly wet 2018. Here's how some of the other wet eastern cities stack up compared to average. Richmond, VA...Washington, DC...Asheville, NC...and Charleston, WV are all ranked #1 for wettest years on record. For WeatherNation, Meteorologists Karissa Klos, Kerrin Jeromin and Steve Glazier