It’s that time of year again, which means Grays Harbor residents ought to ready their rain slickers, boots and hooded sweatshirts, which soak up the slow drops the best.

Matthew Cullen, meteorologist for the National Weather Service (NWS) in Seattle, weighed in on what residents should expect throughout this weekend.

“You’re absolutely right that the rain is back,” Cullen said. “We’ll be getting into this pattern for the next week or so. Across Grays Harbor County, it looks like only about 1.5 to 2 inches of rain. And that’s in total.”

Cullen’s total rainfall prediction spans the entire weekend and into Monday morning. Two weather systems are causing the precipitation for the weekend and through this next week. The first one, along the coast, was expected Friday, with lingering showers after that. The second system is expected to arrive late Sunday and into Monday.

“In between the two showers it won’t be totally dry by any stretch, but it’ll be kind of off-and-on rain,” Cullen said.

Cullen said the rainfall will vary a little bit across the county.

“Some of the higher spots, the higher hills tend to take on a little bit more rain just because of the influence of the topography of the higher hills with the weather system coming in,” Cullen said about the areas in East County. “They can have slightly higher amounts. But, also along the immediate coastline, because the moisture’s coming in just from offshore.”

Once that weather system concludes its weekend tour of Grays Harbor, the next system isn’t far off.

“Tuesday afternoon through early Wednesday morning will be the next funnel system,” Cullen said. “That will likely bring on the order of about half an inch to one inch.”

The source of the impending weather, according to Cullen, is a series of fronts — with really cold fronts and funnel systems.

“And (then) moving in off the Pacific, they will cross the area,” Cullen said. “And each of those will bring that rain with it.”

Cullen expected stronger winds — gusts between 30 to 35 mph — to start Friday and maintain throughout the weekend; they won’t be alarming.

But, still be on the lookout for the damage wind can cause, especially out in East County, where the tree numbers dwarf the number throughout the inner Harbor areas, such as Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Cosmopolis.

“It’s certainly possible the gusty winds could cause some tree limbs to come down, or localized power outages, that sort of thing,” Cullen said. “We’re not expecting real strong winds for a sustained period of time, but certainly folks should prepare for that possibility.”

People who were hoping to soak up the Sun’s warm rays might not like Cullen’s prediction for future weekends in Grays Harbor County. Those carefree weekend days — without rain — appear to be over for the foreseeable future.

“Certainly trying to predict that is challenging,” Cullen said. “In terms of it being warmer and sunny, yes, I think so. Kind of the outlook for the next two weeks or three weeks would favor the same pattern we’ve had with these rounds where the system comes through every couple of days. So, the odds of having a totally clear, sunny, and dry weekend goes down quite a bit.”

October 2022 has been a dry month throughout Grays Harbor, with zero days with measurable rainfall. The lack of rain has made it an outlier. The normal October rainfall is 6.91 inches in Hoquiam, according to NWS’ site at Bowerman Airport. And then in October 2021, it rained 7.64 inches. It doesn’t seem likely this month will be near that.

“That’s quite a lot of ground to make up in the last 10 to 11 days of the month,” Cullen said. “But, we’ll see how much we end up with.”