And the drizzle comes

IT WAS A DRY SUMMER on Center Island, other than the bizarre 48-hour thunderstorm with hourly downpours that we experienced a month or so ago.

But since yesterday, the first full day of autumn, we’ve aptly experienced the weather phenomenon for which the Pacific Northwet should be deservedly famous: drizzle.

In fact, I glanced at the weather forecast yesterday morning — rain for the next week — and dashed outside in robe and slippers, before my first cup of coffee even, to put away the deck furniture for the season. Not that Galley Cat and I ever leave things to the last minute at Nuthatch cabin.

Many non-webfooted outsiders think Seattle is the wettest city in the United States, with constant downpours, but with only about 37 inches of rain in the average year (drizzle, drizzle, drizzle), it’s not even in the top 10. The wettest American city of more than a million people? A place most people go when they want get a tan: Miami, Florida, averaging 64.7 inches of annual liquid sunshine. (Rounding out that top 10 list, based on NOAA records: New Orleans, Birmingham, Houston, Memphis, Orlando, Nashville, Atlanta, New York and Tampa.)

Center Island, in the Olympic rainshadow, gets only about 13 inches a year. Drizzle, drizzle, drizzle, drizzle, drizzle.

It’s cozy inside looking out. I might build a fire in the woodstove. Maybe make a cuppa tea. Happy Sunday, all. Batten down.