It’s going to have to be a very wet December if the Yachats area is to reach its annual average rainfall total for the 2020 calendar year.
Yachats received 8.77 inches of rain in November, nearly 2 inches behind the average for the month. The average November rainfall over the past 10 years in Yachats is 10.58 inches.
November’s rainfall raised Yachats’ 11-month total to 51.2 inches, as measured at the city’s wastewater treatment plant. But that’s still 9 inches behind the average 11-month total rainfall over the past 10 years of 60.91 inches.
For the full, 12-month calendar year the average total rainfall for the Yachats area the past 10 years is 73.48 inches. To reach that number in 2020, Yachats would have to get more than 22 inches of rain in December – a mark it hit only once in the past 10 years, in 2015.
In measuring rainfall around the area, weather and water watchers say it is important to realize that different areas — even in a small coastal community protected by a large cape — get different amounts of rainfall depending on location.
For example, Adam Altson, who lives on Ocean View Drive just west of the city’s wastewater treatment plant, recorded 12.08 inches of rain in November in his manual gauge. His total rainfall for the year is 66.74.
Jim Adler, a longtime water watcher, has a gauge just below the Reedy Creek watershed, where the city gets much of its drinking water. He recorded 12.89 inches of rain in November, giving him a total of 73.77 for the 11 months of 2020.
