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Seasons
Wed Sep 08, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
The term "rainy season" has a vaguely exotic feel to it, as if you are standing in a torrent
on the African savannahs, or the lowlands of India. It's certainly not a term we use
much in the U.S., anyway. Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook.
The fact is that seasonal rainfall is the norm in a lot of places right here in North
America: like the Pacific Northwest. Contrary to their "rains all the time" reputation,
coastal Washington and Oregon are really only wet from November through February,
as Jeff Renner mentioned yesterday. Okay, so monthly rainfall tops six inches then. But
Mediterranean-like summers are the Northwest’s best-kept secret.
California has a rainy season that's even more obvious. San Francisco receives most
of its annual 20 inches of rain from November to March. Folks there refer to it as just
"The Rains." Southern Florida has a rainy season too, though it’s the reverse of the
West Coast. Miami typically gets more than four times as much rain in September than
it does in February. And no Mediterranean summers for them -- June, July, and August
are all too wet. Even the desert Southwest and the Plains have a rainy season, which
is sometimes called the "American Monsoon." It’s about the same time as southern
Florida’s, though rainfall is, of course, somewhat less.
Despite all this, the wet and dry two-season model still hasn’t taken a foothold here.
Maybe you can blame that on the Pilgrims. Since they landed in New England, the
four-season perspective holds a powerful sway over America’s meteorological
self-image. Imagine how it might be if the Pilgrims landed in … San Diego?
Thanks today to Seattle writer David Laskin. Thanks also to Subaru of America, and the
National Science Foundation.
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