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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1890 | 2 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 5 |
| 1893 | 4 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 1 |
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| 1903 | 6 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
| 1917 | 2 |
| 1923 | 1 |
41 stories matching rainfal
- Walla Walla's Growing Thirst
City officials begin enforcing strict sprinkling hours as a record-breaking rainfall deficiency threatens the local water supply.
- Drought Forces Franklin County Farmers to Pivot
After a difficult harvest hampered by insufficient rainfall and improper cultivation, local ranchers shift to fall-sown wheat.
- 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.
- 1892 Storm Washes Out Northern Pacific Rail Lines
A catastrophic deluge wrecks infrastructure and bridges across the Cascades, isolating Yakima as the Yakima River rises three feet in a day.
- A Wall of Smoke and Flame Across Puget Sound
Forest fires from Hood Canal to the Nooksack Valley left dozens of families homeless in 1894, while smoke turned steamboat travel blind and daily life in Seattle into a gray haze.
- The Great Cascade Washout
Heavy winter rains have crippled regional rail lines, severing Kennewick's connection to Western Washington.
- 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.
- The Fight to Make Rainier Uncle Sam’s Park
In 1894, scientists and mountaineers asked Congress to protect Mount Rainier as a national park—while carefully carving out the coal fields and leaving railroad passes open.
- The Oasis in the Arid Belt
How irrigation transformed the Yakima Valley from desert to a model of agricultural productivity and speculative ambition.
- The Death Rate Was Up. The Health Officer Blamed the Syringe.
In 1891 Olympia's health officer reported an unprecedented mortality spike—and pointed to morphine and cocaine injections, with young women said to be using them 'just for fun.'
- The Proposal to Reshape Seattle's Waterways
A civil engineer proposes cutting a new channel between Lake Washington and Lake Union to prevent devastating floods in the Duwamish and White River valleys.
- The Heaviest Rain Ever Recorded Swamped Grays Harbor and Stranded the Trains
3.27 inches in twenty-four hours, a sixty-hour gale, and washouts from Elma to Ocosta: the November 1892 storm cut every rail line into Aberdeen and left the Wynooche out of its banks.
- Engineers Say Snoqualmie Falls Can Light the Sound
A New York journal sizes up the 260-foot falls at 18,000 horsepower and predicts a company will soon wire Seattle and Tacoma to the river.
- The Great Flood of 1876: Seattle’s River Runs Wild
A historic deluge swells the Duwamish River ten feet above normal, washing away timber and threatening the fledgling city.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Struggle to Tame the White River
An engineer’s radical proposal to prevent the flooding that threatened Seattle’s growing suburbs, blaming deforestation for a changing climate.
- A Muddy Victory at Madison Street
On a rain-soaked field, the Seattle football team slogs through the slime to defeat Tacoma in a gritty, mud-caked exhibition.
- The Summer the Smoke Saved the Harvest
With rainfall a third of normal and crops burning in the fields, Seattle's paper made the case that the season's suffocating pall of forest-fire smoke had been the region's salvation.
- The Great Hop Rush of 1890
As Washington’s hop industry hits an all-time record, growers are warned that the quality of their crop—and the future of their international trade—hangs on meticulous curing.
- 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 River Runs Dry: A Drought Threatens White Bluffs
Record-low water levels in the Columbia River leave irrigation systems high and dry, forcing farmers to brace for a parched season.
- Harvest Prospects Dim on Eureka Flat
Local farmers report a disappointing wheat yield, with some fields failing entirely as moisture levels hit historic lows.
- Samuel Hill Warns Seattle Would 'Die Like Rats in a Trap' Without Highways
As Congress weighs the Latimer and Brownlow road-funding bills, the Seattle utility magnate and son-in-law of James J. Hill makes the case that paved highways out of the city are a matter of survival, not comfort.
- State College Experiments Prove Soil Fertility Benefits
Washington State College's long-term farm study demonstrates that crop rotation and manure outperform mono-cropping and summer fallowing.
Also about this, in other words
- The Great Mud Puddle: Seattle’s Drainage Nightmare
A massive sinkhole at the corner of Main and Colfax streets has turned a vital thoroughfare into a swamp, threatening the city's infrastructure and hygiene.