Metro Detroit Weather: How much rain have we actually gotten this year

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The rain is back. Yep. The rain returns Wednesday night and Thursday in Metro Detroit. And if you think it's rained nearly every other day - well, you're kinda right. Statistically speaking anyway. 

My wife said it to me like it was a fact. "It's been raining like every other day this year", she proclaimed. Being the scientist I am, I couldn't just let that go without digging into it.  So, I did.

I felt it was fair to start back on June 1 (kinda the start of Summer, but also an easy data beginning point). Of the 30 days in June, it rained 19 of them. Moving on to July, it rained 16 of the 31 days. 

August had 17 rainy days, and September had 12. Of the 6 days in October, we've had 4 rainy days already.

The math comes down to this: it has rained 68 out of 127 days since June 1. That comes out to 54%. More than half of the days have been wet, rainy and damp. My wife was right! (Quick note to husbands everywhere, your wife is always right). 

While it hasn't actually rained "every other day" (we've had stretches of several dry days in a row, as well as stretches of several wet days) it has rained a lot and that rain has added up. 

Rainfall totals since June 1st total 21 inches which is 7 inches more than we usually see in that stretch.  

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The reason for this is the multiple heavy rain events we've had this year.  By my estimation, there have been 4 significant rain events this Summer (June 25, July 16, August 12, and September 22). 

These four events alone contributed to nearly 8.5 inches of rain in the official record books - but some spots got even more than that on a local scale. 

Research is showing that thanks to climate change we are indeed seeing more and more heavy rain events on a national scale, as warmer air leads to more water vapor in the atmosphere, which leads to heavy rainstorms.

In the end, it's fair to say that this year has been very wet, not just with rainfall totals but with the frequency of rain.