2018 looks to be third highest rainfall in last 18 years

TRYON — Polk County was listed as abnormally dry on Jan. 23, and there has been no sight of drought ever since.

The year 2018 has definitely seen abnormal amounts of rain, but, at 76.26 inches for the year so far, it is still nowhere near the most rain over the last 18 years, when 92.12 inches fell during 2013.

This year will likely be the third wettest since 2000, depending on rainfall in December, behind 2013 at 92.12 inches and 2003 at 83.29 inches, according to figures from the National Weather Service.

December normally sees 5.24 inches of rain in Tryon, according to NWS data.

Through October, 2018 had already seen 66.86 inches of rain, which surpassed the normal for the year, which is 61.77 inches.

As of Monday this week, there had only been 12 days of no rain in the month. The high rainfall for the month of November occurred on Nov. 14, with 2.89 inches, while Nov. 12 saw 2.05 inches of rain.

As of Tuesday, November had received 9.4 inches of rain, according to the NWS, which is well above the normal of 4.8 inches.

October was also well above normal this year, with a total of 11.37 inches of rain. The highest was 4.11 inches on Oct. 11, and the second highest in the month was 2.48 inches on Oct. 10. The high rainfalls came from Hurricane Michael.

May was the heaviest rainfall month this year, with the NWS not having data for one day of the month and still measured 13.11 inches for the month. Data is conflicting for the month of May, as some weather services say some parts of Tryon received more than 20 inches of rain in just two weeks during the month of May, the most coming on the night of May 18, when mudslides devastated the Pacolet Valley just outside of Tryon.

There is little to no chance of rain through the rest of this week until Saturday, when there is a 90 percent chance of rain, according to weather.com.