Rainy weather makes a splash this year, as area takes aim at record
As Ian Kennedy walked his dog Tuesday morning, dodging deep puddles from yet another stretch of wet weather, he felt exhausted.
For months now, the rain has forced him to skip daily bike rides on roads and trails near his Columbia home, instead confining him to an indoor bike trainer. Scout, his family’s mutt, won’t go out when it’s pouring.
The rain has even interfered with his job as executive director of the Downtown Columbia Arts and Culture Commission. It scared away crowds from movies and concerts at Merriweather Post Pavilion.
“I thought, ‘I am just done with this rain,’ ” the 41-year-old said. “I am done with it.”
The frustration is commonaround Maryland and much of the mid-Atlantic, and it’s warranted — September isn’t even over, but the Baltimore region has eclipsed a centuryold record for the wettest first nine months of the year, and is on pace for a new annual rainfall record. Through Tuesday, there has been about 53 inches of rain at BaltimoreWashington International Thurgood Marshall Airport this year, 11 inches more than the region gets in an entire year, on average.
The rain can be blamed for the deaths of at least two people, swept away by floodwaters in Ellicott City and Harford County, as well as tens of millions of dollars in damage and countless disruptions. It has canceled outdoor movies, festivals and baseball games; and it has fueled outbreaks of mold that have closed schools and dormitories.
Not to mention it’s a major downer, clinically speaking.
It’s certainly been a bane to Ed Bernard, who was forced to stop mowing a median strip along Ritchie Highway on Tuesday as raindrops again began to fall.
“When it’s too wet, we can’t work,” said Bernard, who works for K.D. Faulkner Landscaping. But it’s a boon for others. “I can’t keep up with the demand right now,” said Keith Bock, owner of Peake Restoration Mold Testing.
Meteorologists say the frequent stretches of rain are the product of frontal boundaries that have remained stubbornly draped over Maryland in recent months.
Climate scientists say the pattern is to be expected as oceans warm, air becomes more moist and storms move more slowly than in the past. Of course, it’s not only affecting Maryland — one rainfall expert said Tuesday that Hurricane Florence was the nation’s second-rainiest storm in 70 years, behind only Hurricane Harvey last year.
It has required some adjustments for anyone trying to spend time outdoors around Maryland this year.
The Aberdeen Ironbirds, a minor league affiliate of the Orioles, had to cancel four of their 38 home games because of rain. And the team heard plenty of complaints about it, said General Manager Matt Slatus.
Such disappointments can have a cumulative effect on the rain-weary, said Jared McGinley, an assistant professor of psychology at Towson University. But the main mental health hazard brought on by the wet weather is actually biological, he said.
Without sunshine, the body doesn’t produce as much Vitamin D, an important ingredient in the mood-raising chemical serotonin. At the same time, when rain limits outdoor recreation, that means the body isn’t producing endorphins. Cloudy conditions also hinder the brain’s ability to suppress melatonin, inducing more fatigue.
Areprieve is expected to arrive Thursday and last through the weekend.
Three-quarters of the way through 2018, it has been Baltimore’s wettest start to any year on record — wetter than the first nine months of 1889, which included Pennsylvania’s deadly Johnstown flood; 1979, a year of record-setting snowfall and tropical rain; or 1933, when the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane hit, carving open Ocean City’s inlet.
The next record in sight is for the region’s wettest full year. That mark belongs to 2003, with more than 62 inches of rain — 2018 is within 10 inches of matching it.
Ten inches also happens to be the average rainfall for the final three months of the year here.