Seattle weather forecast: Rain on the driest day of the year

With one month and some change left of summer, Mother Nature has decided to remind us that the season’s successor is, indeed, waiting in the wings.

On Monday’s meteorological menu was an uncharacteristically wet day — akin to the likes of fall — during what is climatologically the driest period of the year.

Dating back to 1945, measurable rainfall has occurred less frequently in Seattle on July 29 — just 5% of the time — than any other day of the year, according to the National Weather Service.

In fact, Seattle’s grand total of rainfall on July 29 over the past 79 years is only 0.31 inches, the weather service said, and Seattle has not seen measurable rainfall at all between July 27 and Aug. 1 in the last 15 years.

Rain spread inland early Monday, wetting pavement and making for a slick morning commute due to oil buildup and lack of recent rain. Before Monday, the last time it rained more than trace amounts in Seattle was June 27, according to weather service data.

Rain was widespread in the lowlands and tapered off by Monday afternoon. No more than a quarter of an inch was expected across much of the Seattle area, although Everett was expected to see up to a half of an inch.

If Seattle received .2 inches of rain Monday, that would be a third of July’s normal rainfall total of .6 inches, the weather service said.

Since 1945, there have been only 12 days in the last week of July with 0.2 inches or more of rain in Seattle. The last time the city received more than a quarter of an inch in the last week of July was nearly 30 years ago, with 0.41 inches in 1995.

A half an inch to an inch and a half of rain was expected along the west slopes of the Cascades, welcome news to those fighting fires in the North Cascades.

With clouds and rain, high temperatures were expected to only graze the mid-60s, the average high for mid-May.

Drippy clouds will linger through Tuesday, breaking up in the afternoon, before they eventually exit to the east.

Highs will remain below normal on Tuesday, in the mid-60s to mid-70s.

Summer will return by Wednesday, wrangling temperatures back up into the upper 70s to low 80s.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the last two mornings of July, a gathering of planets, stars and the moon awaits in the eastern sky, if the forecasted clouds don’t spoil the view.

On July 30, the crescent moon will float among shining Jupiter, red Mars, the bright star Aldebaran and the pretty Pleiades star cluster before sunrise.

Then, the next morning, the whisker-thin crescent moon will hang to the lower left of the planetary pair and stars in a cosmic congress.