After a warm, dry May-June, the Pacific Northwest has been bracing itself for summer. The past two summers were partly ruined by immense wildfires far and near, that turned the sky into a smoky haze for weeks on end. July and August are the driest months, and in 2019 we seemed to careen towards them in the worst shape.
And then, Nature gave its CO2-loaded dice a lucky roll for us. Thus far we’ve had one of the mildest, and surely the wettest, summer in our 17 years here. To boot, the rain has arrived in measured doses of one substantial event every 7-10 days:
The purple line is the official SeaTac gauge. The green is at UW, more reflective of what we’re getting here in North Seattle. In 1948-2018, the median SeaTac July-August time span saw a total of 39mm rain, with the rainiest part typically coming in late August (I just crunched the raw numbers from NOAA). Since 2000 it’s been even drier: a median of 26mm for the two months. This year it’s only August 10, and we’ve already had ~50mm at SeaTac and ~80mm at UW. By ingenious foresight (no, of course not my lucky laziness) I decided to lay our veggie garden fallow this summer. So now I don’t have to fret about tomatoes that have no chance of ripening in this weather. We’ve also had very little need to water the plants, and our rain barrels are full. The only worry is whether it will rain on an upcoming camping trip. Then Saturday morning it really came down, especially in our neck of the woods. Yeah, a top rate of 8mm/hour is laughable in the Tropics, but this ain’t the Tropics and it’s the dry season. Is it February? November? August 10? Or just my terrible cameramanship? Hard to tell...This amount and rate of rain are enough to bring the creek high pretty quickly (and even bubble up some homes’ toilets, so we’ve heard from neighbors), but in the dry season it would subside a few hours after the rain is over.
The rain was over at 10, and at 11 down to the Creek I went.
After spending June all shriveled up, the licorice ferns are happy again on the Big Leaf Maple. Another sign of high water: only then does the creek fill this clearing, rather than meander around the right-hand side. Slightly OT, but on my way up from the Creek I spotted this brand-new Model 3 charging. I think the people living there, or someone who visits them a lot, had a 2016 Leaf before that. We too just got a new Leaf lease b/c the old one came due. The neighborhood is gradually electrifying itself... Anyway, by 4 PM it was a classical beautiful Seattle summer afternoon, as if nothing happened.Last but not least: like in many Seattle open spaces, the homeless encampments around the Creek expand in summer. Unlike in winter when you might fear for their health, in summer while obviously less convenient than having a home, in Seattle’s comfortable and mostly dry summer weather more take the chance to find a spot outdoors. Just last week a small tent sheltered by a 10x10 canopy sprang up right on the main entry/exit trail I’ve been using. There are a couple of bypasses (including one maintained by the residents of a longer-term encampment), so my inconvenience is surely smaller than theirs.
Long story short today when I passed there, the woman in the new tent was outside arranging stuff. I called out asking if she stayed dry. “Not really”, she said. I mumbled “too bad”, continuing on my way, then turned around asking if she needs something “Cash, bus money”. I never know how to respond to such asks, besides not having any cash on me. I walked away then turned around again, asking if she’s tried North Helpline, a food bank, financial aid and homeless-prevention center, only a mile and a half away.
She said she did go there, and they didn’t help her. She said since her stuff got wet, she’s probably going back to living in her car (which cast a little doubt about the “bus money” thing from earlier). I said bye and left.
Just putting it out there, as a reminder that the creek and other open spaces near where we live, are more than just our recreational and nature space. They are some people’s last resort. We just had our city council primaries this week. I hope we finally get a council with the political will to put everyone in the city in homes. We’ve been voting in more and more progressive members, so I’m pretty sure that Seattle’s public wants that, besides the teensy aspect of it being the right thing to do.