Annual Rainfall Records Tumbled In 2018 In US, Nearly All In Eastern, Midwest States

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Here are some of the larger towns and cities that notched records for 2018, as tallied by weather.com based on data from NOAA and the Southeastern Regional Climate Center. All of these locations have at least a 60-year period of record, and some of the records broken were truly long-standing, including Washington, D.C. (129 years) and Wilmington, North Carolina (141 years). Many of the records were smashed by impressive margins of 5" or more.

See the weather.com article for additional background on this very wet year.

Location + total rainfall in 2018 (old annual record + year)

Washington, DC (DCA): 66.28” (61.33”, 1889)
Mason City, IA: 54.74” (47.75”, 2016)
Waterloo, IA: 54.05” (53.07”, 1993)
Lexington, KY: 71.98” (66.35”, 2011)
Louisville, KY: 68.83” (68.02”, 2011)
Baltimore, MD (BWI): 71.82” (62.66”, 2003)
Asheville, NC: 79.48” (75.22”, 2013)
Elizabeth City, NC: 63.95” (62.13”, 1979)
Greensboro, NC: 64.11” (62.32”, 2003)
New Bern, NC: 79.17” (72.70”, 2003)
Wilmington, NC: 102.40” (83.65”, 1877)
Atlantic City, NJ: 68.57” (66.38”, 1958)
Elmira, NY: 57.62” (49.96”, 2011)
Columbus, OH: 55.18” (54.96”, 2011)
Pittsburgh, PA: 57.83” (57.41”, 2004)
Scranton, PA: 61.08” (59.99”, 2011)
State College, PA: 63.76” (59.30”, 1996)
Sioux Falls, SD: 39.19” (38.26”, 2010)
Danville, VA: 67.61” (62.78”, 2003)
Lynchburg, VA: 65.70” (59.71”, 1972)
Roanoke, VA: 62.45” (58.81”, 2003)
Green Bay, WI: 39.21” (38.36”, 1985)
Charleston, WV: 67.05” (61.01”, 2003)
Wheeling, WV: 57.65” (50.79”, 1950)

If we expand the roster of observing sites to include those with shorter periods of record, then more than 100 U.S. locations had their wettest year on record, according to The Weather Channel. You can zoom in on various U.S. regions to find those cities by using the online Perspectives tool, created by the Southeast Regional Climate Center. By clicking on each site, you can view the local records and periods of record.


Figure 1. The year 2018 landed among the ten wettest or ten driest years on record at all of the U.S. sites shown above. Size of the dot corresponds to the magnitude of the ranking (larger dots = higher rankings). Image credit: The Weather Channel, via Greg Diamond, @gdimeweather.

EDIT

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Wettest-Year-Records-2018-Take-Two