The weather for the 4th of July this year is looking pretty good, with scattered clouds in the forecast and highs in the low seventies.
That’s actually pretty typical, says Carl Carniglia with the national weather service in Seattle. He looked back at local statistics from the late 1800s to the present and found the historical data contradicts the cliché of rainy weather for Independence day.
"Basically only one out of every four 4th of Julys have rain on them," Cerniglia says. "Three out of four, we have rain and the average temperature is 75 degrees, through that history.”
So overall, he says the fourth tends to be a nice day. He says in the past ten years, measurable rain has occurred on July 4th only twice. Last year was the worst of the decade though, with rain and a high of only 65 degrees.
Here's a look back at the numbers for the past ten years of July 4th weather in Seattle:
Year High (F) Precipitation (inches)
201o 65 0.11
2009 87 0
2008 71 0
2007 84 0
2006 75 0.02
2005 79 0
2004 71 0
2003 75 0
2002 65 0
2001 76 0
Avg 74.8
