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355 stories matching rain
- Smoke So Thick You Could Not See a Block: The August the Sound Went Dark
Forest and peat fires from Lynden to Wilkeson filled Puget Sound with smoke in late August 1894. Seattle's weather observer promised rain within thirty-six hours, and Whatcom County counted its losses.
- The Rain That Saved the Harvest
A week of torrid heat and nervous anticipation ends as drenching rains sweep across the Inland Empire, securing the wheat crop.
- Rain Stops the Great Pend Oreille Fire After a Firefighter Is Killed
More than a hundred men cut fire lines from Tacoma Creek to Little Pend Oreille lakes as flames threaten Sandpoint and destroy tens of millions of feet of timber.
- Rain Turns Early Seattle's Front Street to Mud
When heavy rains turned downtown thoroughfares into impassable quagmires, residents demanded better engineering than the temporary, 'penny-wise' patch jobs of the 1870s.
- The Great Rain-Soaked Barbecue of 1889
A much-hyped political feast in Seattle ends in a pathetic drizzle, empty plates, and heated accusations of corruption between the Republican and Democratic parties.
- The Rain-Soaked Fourth: Seattle's 1899 Celebration
A persistent storm could not dampen the spirits of thousands as Seattle paraded through muddy streets, celebrated the anniversary of Manila, and grappled with the 'reckless debauchery' of a damp Fourth of July.
- Seven Inches in Ten Days: The Flood That Broke Puget Sound
A warm Chinook melted mountain snow into relentless rain, washing out the Northern Pacific, wrecking the Naphtha launch works, and isolating towns from Tacoma to Seattle.
- A Night in the Hollow Tree
A traveler lost in the brush near Snohomish spends a freezing, rain-soaked night in an hollowed-out tree, only to discover he was feet away from safety.
- The Meteorology of the Woods
An 1880 meteorologist argues that deforestation is responsible for the drying of rivers and the loss of rainfall, a warning from the early days of Washington Territory.
- Rain Washes Out a Seattle Baseball Victory
A downpour saves Portland from defeat in a contentious Sunday league match.
- Heavy Rains Spell Disaster for Palouse Grain
A three-day deluge in the Palouse region is expected to result in thousands of dollars in lost barley and wheat harvests.
- The Valley Sixty Miles From a Railroad
In 1892, the Big Bottom settlers of Lewis County had no road, no sawmill and no rail line — just hand-hewn homes, packhorses, a tobacco-chewing cat, and a Fourth of July party for 160 neighbors.
- The Palouse Wheat Boom Was a Gold Mine—Until the Debt Came Due
An agricultural professor traces the Palouse’s speculative wheat economy: inflated land purchases, the rain-ruined crop of 1893, the panic that followed, and the sudden recovery by 1897.
- A Welcome Storm Saves the Harvest
After weeks of drought threatening the region's crops, a heavy storm brings relief to local farmers.
- Rain Ruins Skagit Oat Crop
Heavy autumn rains destroy most of the Skagit Valley oat harvest, forcing local suppliers to look toward Eastern Washington.
- The Moss-Cloaked Giants of Bay Center
A teacher’s letter from the Pacific Northwest frontier describes a landscape of colossal trees and lush undergrowth, challenging the myth of the harsh pioneer struggle.
- The Sky Turned to Smoke: Forest Fires Choke Puget Sound
Fires across Whatcom, Skagit and the Olympic Mountains destroyed bridges, barns and a shingle mill, derailed a Great Northern train and left Puget Sound under a suffocating haze.
- The Hidden River Beneath University Street
When Seattle’s early engineers paved over a local creek, nature fought back during the autumn rains.
- The Great Rain of 1903
A record-breaking two-week downpour across Eastern Washington threatens to destroy the wheat harvest and the livelihood of local farmers.
- The Great Fill: Seattle’s First Major Land Reclamation and the Fight for White Labor
In October 1876, workers are frantically raising Front Street to save it from the Duwamish River. The local press frames this massive public works project not just as engineering, but as a moral victory for 'white labor' over cheap Chinese competition.
- The Lighthouse Keeper’s Rain-Soaked Exile
A desperate account of life on Tatoosh Island, where the constant thunder of the foghorn and relentless rainfall drove a keeper to the brink.
- Race Against the Rain in Puyallup
After a season of unprecedented late spring rains, hop growers are working overtime to get their crop in the ground.
- The Coldest Commute in Tacoma
Commuters express outrage as the local transit company forces passengers to brave midwinter rain on open-air 'summer' streetcars.
- Richland Farmers Abandon Strawberry Fields
A combination of unseasonable rains and falling market prices forces local growers to plow under their crops in favor of more reliable produce.
- Trapped by the Tide on the Road to Queets
In 1892, poet Herbert Bashford joined a camping party for a walk up Washington’s wild Olympic coast—and found the rising tide more dangerous than any highwayman.
Also about this, in other words
- Warm Rain Triggers Slides and Floods Across Puget Sound
A winter warm spell melts mountain snow, sending mudslides across the Great Northern line and flooding the Skagit Delta, stranding passengers and threatening crops with salt water.
- Hail, Snow, Thunder and a Shock Down the Telephone Wire
For two and a half hours Seattle gets a storm almost no climate can produce — and a businessman on Second Street gets knocked against the door by lightning on the line.
- The Weather Bureau's Secret Weapon
An Aberdeen inventor was caught with a bizarre, Gattling-gun-style contraption designed to blast the clouds away and control the rain.
- The Wettest Spring in Memory: Walla Walla’s Deluge and the Rainbow That Spanned Mountains
While Seattle residents fret over rain cisterns, neighbors to the east endure a historic deluge that has delayed planting and produced a rare midnight rainbow stretching from the Cascades to the Columbia.
- A Stormy Night in Guy
A fierce windstorm terrified residents as strange colors painted the midnight sky.
- A Dry Spell Finally Ends for Walla Walla Farmers
A much-needed rainfall brings relief to local agriculture after a month of concerning precipitation deficits.
- Summer Storm Floods Walla Walla
A sudden deluge leaves streets submerged, damages wheat harvests, and sends mountain campers fleeing back to the city.
- A Sea of Slimy Mud
Heavy November rains leave Walla Walla’s streets nearly impassable as the town struggles with a record-breaking deluge.