Lets toast the new year

Happy New Year! Happy new water year that is. October 1 marks the new water year 2011. Time for us at KPUD to reflect on 2010 rainfall. Having just gone through a season that could only marginally be called summer, I think we all know it has been wet. How wet was it?

Rainfall in Kitsap County varies so greatly that in order to get a complete picture of our county's precipitation, our office collects rainfall data from 40 collection stations. Most of the rain gauges have computerized loggers that collect rainfall data every fifteen minutes, but a few of the rain gauges are at private residences where committed homeowners collect the rainfall measurements and bring them into our office.

During 2010, the gauge at our office on Finn Hill Road in Poulsbo registered 53.02 inches. This compares to the measly 27.67 inches reported in 2009. Our average rainfall is around 40 inches at this spot. The north part of the county is in the rain shadow. The rain gauge at McKenna Falls in the Bremerton Watershed registered 80.72 inches this year! If you are interested in finding out about rainfall at other sites visit our websit at kpud.org. I'll tell you how to navigate the labyrinth of the website to find this info and more:

• go to kpud.org and click on "water"
• click on "reference data" on the top bar and choose "hydrologic"
  
• check the "I agree" box
• click on "Water Resource Data"
• after arriving at the county map, click on the "Daily Rain Page"
• pick your precipitation gauge site and year for daily rainfall totals

Also on this page are deviation contour maps. These maps allow you to compare twenty years' rainfall data at a glance. Areas of the maps are colored with red/yellow for dry, green or average rainfall and blue/purple for wet areas. What colors do think will predominate on the 2010 map?

Lets toast the new water year by drinking a big glass of Kitsap County tap water. Here's to wet weather!