The Blue Hole (Day 79 of 273)

The Blue Hole. Not the one in the Caribbean (Michele Tuttle), but the one here in Port Townsend and Sequim to the west. Its the result of little meterological miracle called a rain shadow. Basically, the high Olympic Mountains to the west provide a barrier to Pacific storms that approach Washington. As the low approaches, the cyclonic CCW circulation brings SW winds onshore. The Olympics wrench out a lot of the moisture, thereby providing a "rain shadow" on the back (eastern) side of the mountains. The Ho rainforest in the wet (western) side of the Olympics gets something like 200" of rainfall a year and Lake Quinault (where they race Hobies, Steve C & T) gets about 13 ft of rain a year. In the recent Jan 2009 storm that caused all the flooding in the Seattle area, Lake Quinault got 13.7 inches of rain in 36 hours—not bad if your are a fish or a frog. We got about 1/2" in spits and spurts, just enough to annoy an old desert rat like me (Michael).

When Nancy and I stayed at the Lake Quinault lodge last year, we were fasinated by their totum-pole rain gauge. It is a 20-ft-tall pole with a sliding gauge. In August they'd had 7 ft for the 2007 year, and in November they got 12 inches in one day. The rain comes into the lake so fast it can escape through the narrow natural spillway, to the lake can rise 8-10 ft overnight, inundating the campgrounds. All the houses and permanent structures are built at least 10 ft above the spillway elevation. Great place to visit, and the lodge is a USPS historic lodge.

Port Townsend gets about 17-18" of annual precip, as we do at Kala Point 5 airline miles south of town. We are in the south center of the Blue Hole. The Komo (Seattle TV Ch. 4) website (http://www.komonews.com/weather/faq/4306627.html) has a good discussion of the Blue Hole, but highlight the town of Sequim because it has the least rainfall (14") of all the towns. There is catcus growing on south facing slopes in Sequim, so they have a Denver-like climate without the snow and >80°F temps. However, you know what they say about Sequim. That's where the old folks go . . . to visit their parents. Enough said.