Wettest 12 Months in U.S. History—Again

Bob Henson · June 6, 2019, 1:31 PM EDT

Propelled by a two-week siege of widespread severe weather and heavy rain in late May, the contiguous U.S. has once again broken its record for the wettest year-long span in data going back to 1895. According to the monthly U.S. climate summary released Thursday from the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, last month was the second-wettest month in U.S. history, with the nationally averaged total of 4.41” just behind the 4.44” recorded in May 2015. All other months in U.S. precipition annals have been no wetter than 4.24”.

The year to date also ranks as the wettest January-to-May period in U.S. history. The nationally averaged total of 15.71” is well above the previous record of 15.13” from Jan.-May 1983. In fact, the difference of 0.58” is almost twice as big as the difference between any other two Jan.-May periods in the 125-year dataset, when arranged from dryest to wettest.

Four states—Illinois, Kansas, Nevada and South Dakota—are having their wettest year on record to date through May, as noted by weather.com's Brian Donegan.

The sodden May pushed the period June 2018-May 2019 into a clear first place for contiguous U.S. precipitation among all year-long time spans going back to 1895.

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