Sun Style + weather

Rain, Rain, Go Away. Really. Oh, and by the Way, We Hear That Seattle’s Nice.

By Ralph Blumenthal Published: June 30, 2009

I like New York in June...
-“Babes on Broadway”

Oh yeah? The city was a soggy mess in June, drenched with rains. There was even a touch on Tuesday, leaving the city close to setting a record before the month floated into history at midnight. Ball fields had flooded and lonely lifeguards had shivered from Coney Island to Orchard Beach. Even a relentless booster like Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had to joke: “It only rained twice this week — once for three days and once for four days.”

Worse, you couldn’t even call it Seattle-like weather.

Seattle was gorgeous.

For that, Seattle almost had to apologize. “We’re having to explain to people they really are in Seattle,” said Tom Norwalk, a spokesman for that city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, speaking by telephone.

And — ignominy! — a Seattle umbrella shop did its best business by shipping east.

Central Park was pelted with 10.06 inches of rain for the month through Tuesday afternoon, according to preliminary figures from the National Weather Service, more than twice the average for the month, and close to the record 10.27 inches set in 2003. In contrast, Seattle, known for its precipitation and “June gloom,” recorded an almost imperceptible 0.18 inch of rain, one-seventh of the average.

And before a sprinkle on June 19 dashed Seattle’s hopes for meteorological immortality, it had gone 29 days without rain, tying a local record set in 1982.

“Close, but no cigar,” lamented Cliff Mass, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington and a weather blogger who chronicled the “mega-dry” streak.

The Seattle-New York weather seesaw was scarcely coincidental, Dr. Mass said. “It’s usual to have opposite weather,” he said. “There’s a wavelike pattern to the atmosphere. We are often 180 degrees different.”

So when Seattle turned nice, New Yorkers were almost destined to suffer. And suffer they did.

While the rains left the city’s parks greener than ever, “it’s been difficult to mow the outfields,” said Adrian Benepe, the parks commissioner. “The infields hold water — they’re under huge puddles.”

Beach use in June was way down, Mr. Benepe said, to 735,000 from the usual 2.6 million, according to crowd counts. “We could get 735,000 on one hot day,” he said.

Presiding over the empty beaches was an augmented army of 1,200 lifeguards, ranks swelled by the financial crisis and the lure of a job, even if just for the summer. “They’re spending a lot of time practicing and sitting huddled under umbrellas,” the commissioner said.

But there was good news as well. “With rains like this, the parks are especially lush,” he said. “They’ve never been so green. It’s a great season for flowers.”

When the sun has peeked through, people have rushed out. “If there’s 15 minutes of sunshine, they get out to the parks,” Mr. Benepe said.

For their part, Seattleites showed little concern that their city’s reputation for dampness might be at stake, and they flocked outdoors. Last weekend the main attraction was the city’s first rock ’n’ roll marathon, with bands serenading 25,000 marathon runners along the route. A gay pride march and a game by the city’s soccer club, the Seattle Sounders, drew large crowds.

“People were everywhere out and about,” said Christina Donegan, the Chamber of Commerce vice president for communications.

Of course, they usually are anyway. “People out here have a lot of Gore-Tex, and they’re ready to use it,” Dr. Mass said of the popular wet-weather fabric.

Actually, New York City averages more rainfall annually than Seattle, 49.69 inches to 37.07 inches, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but Seattle’s climate is damper, with more days of rain and mist.

Mayor Bloomberg looked on the bright side. “One of the things any mayor is worried about is if the reservoirs are going to empty out,” he said. “We took care of it early this year.”

Also, he said, “There’s more to do indoors in New York City than to do in- or outdoors anywhere else.”

The weather was so nice in Seattle that Bella Umbrella, a shop specializing in renting its 800 vintage models for weddings, might have suffered but for an unexpected boon. “I’ve had the best two months I ever had, and a lot of it was because of last-minute orders from the East Coast,” said Jodell Egbert, the owner. For brides and grooms, she said, she represented “Plan B.”

And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop the rain.
- Creedence Clearwater Revival