Fall Arrives After Driest Summer On Record For Seattle

SEATTLE — Fall officially begins Thursday evening with the arrival of the autumnal equinox, and the first few days of the season look to run a little cooler and cloudier, according to the latest forecasts. There may even be a small chance for some rain Friday afternoon as Puget Sound finally puts its driest summer on record in the rearview mirror.

On the last day of summer, the National Weather Service said Seattle had logged just a half-inch of rain over the last 93 days, with Sept. 16 accounting for more than a third of the total. That placed summer 2022 narrowly ahead of 2017 and well ahead of the third-driest recorded in 1988.

Fortunately, there are some promising signals for a wetter-than-usual fall. The Climate Prediction Center's latest seasonal outlooks show Washington as one of the few places in the country with favorable odds for above-average precipitation between October and December. For temperatures, climatologists see equal chances of them leaning cooler or warmer.

AccuWeather's 2022 fall forecast sees Washington making an earlier seasonal shift than much of the U.S.

"The Pacific Northwest will be the first to turn the corner and head into the wet season with storms starting to deliver rain and high-elevation mountain snow as early as October," AccuWeather wrote in August. "The arrival of these storms will signal the end of the fire season for most of Washington, Oregon and Idaho."

With the equinox behind and winter solstice ahead, Washington is also fast shedding daylight. The National Weather Service notes Seattle will lose about 3 minutes of sun every day through the end of October, with the "big dark" on the horizon. As the sun rises later and sets earlier, the Emerald City will see daylight hours dip below 12 by Monday, losing another 90 minutes by this time next month.

Monday also marks the first sunset of the season before 7 p.m. Sunsets before 6 p.m. will arrive before October is over, and daylight saving time ends Nov. 6. By winter solstice, Puget Sound will be down to 8 hours and 25 minutes of daylight as the sun sets on the shortest day of the year.

Upcoming sunset times:

• Sept. 26: 6:58 p.m.
• Oct. 27: 5:59 p.m.
• Nov. 6: 4:44 p.m. (Daylight saving time ends)
• Dec. 21: 4:20 p.m. (Winter solstice)

Related: Another Cold Winter Could Be In Store For WA, Thanks To La Niña