Seattle RainWatch has been alerting SPU to short-term heavy rainfall for over 4 years. Beyond the highly valued “heads up” functionality, RainWatch has also painted picture after picture of storm totals at a unique, neighborhood scale. The precipitation climatology that has emerged has helped SPU to both better manage its drainage system and to adapt to climate change.

A graphical image isn’t always the best format for analysis, however, so in response to user demands a new feature was implemented last week. A near-real-time table of regional observations was added to the tool bar (“obs table,” upper right link, see screenshot above). The table was modeled after the USGS/City of Portland’s HYDRA network. Observations sites are listed latitudinally and various rainfall durations are tallied or calculated hourly. More features will be added over time, but it’s already proving to be another great way to follow local weather as it’s happening.

References:
Seattle RainWatch
SPU Climate Change program
Email SPU’s Climate Change team