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Sleetless in Seattle: City gets little rain and no snow this dry January

caption: Sleetless in Seattle: The Seattle area, shown at sunset on Jan. 24, 2025, has had little rain and no snow in January.
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Sleetless in Seattle: The Seattle area, shown at sunset on Jan. 24, 2025, has had little rain and no snow in January.
KUOW Photo/John Ryan

Whether you’ve been drinking alcohol or abstaining, it’s been an exceptionally dry January in the Seattle area.

Only one inch of rain has fallen on Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in January, according to the National Weather Service, less than one-fifth the normal amount so far this month.

As of noon Thursday, the airport had gone two full weeks with no measurable precipitation.

RELATED: Western Washington is having a dry (weather) January, and a cold one

So far in 2025, Olympia has 1.6 inches, or one-fifth of its typical rain, while Bellingham has had 1.4 inches, or less than one-third its usual rainfall.

It has been a dry January in the mountains as well.

Snowpack in the west side of the central Cascades was 44% below normal on Jan. 29, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, while snowpack in the mountains of North Puget Sound was 32% below normal. Statewide, snowpack was 19% below normal (defined as the typical amount for the years 1991-2020).

Rain and snow were forecast to hit Western Washington Thursday evening and Friday, though not enough to bring the region anywhere near its normal January wetness.

RELATED: U.S. hydropower drops to 20-year low as Northwest snowpack shrinks

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