From Washington To You
Open sky and spit at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge in the Sequim rain shadow.
Photograph by A. LaValle, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, April 9, 2022. Public domain.

From Washington to you

Sequim Rain Shadow

Sequim · Clallam County

Sequim gets about 16 inches of rain a year — less than 35 miles from temperate rain forest, and close enough for prickly pear cactus.

Storms from the Pacific hit the Olympic Mountains and drop their moisture on the west side. NPS says the northeastern Olympic Peninsula then sits in a dry rain shadow. The town of Sequim gets roughly 16 inches (41 cm) of rain a year. A park rainfall table lists Sequim at 15.80 inches (40 cm) for the year, Port Angeles at 25.9, Kalaloch at 103, and the Hoh at 135.

Farmers irrigate their fields. A few prickly pear cactus plants grow there, less than 35 miles (56 km) from lush temperate rain forests. Hurricane Ridge, still wringing moisture from the same storms, averages 30 to 35 feet (10 m) of snow a year.

The west-side valleys are the wettest spots in the continental United States. The Hoh records an average of almost 12 feet (3.6 meters) of rain a year. The sources below are Olympic National Park weather pages.

  • Geography & Geology
  • Science / Strange Washington

Sources (1)

Last reviewed: September 21, 2026

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  • same landscape

    Hoh Rain Forest

    Pacific storms drop 12 to 14 feet of rain a year on one of the last primeval temperate rain forests in the lower 48.

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    Hurricane Ridge

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    Olympic's west-side valleys take more than 12 feet of rain a year, and Quinault's north shore is in the park while the south shore is National Forest.