COLUMBUS, Ohio — Rain has been the theme for what seems like most of this winter. Typically in the meteorological winter months, December through February, we see around 8.16” of precipitation.
This winter has already surpassed that with 13.04” of precipitation since Dec.1. While we were below average in January, we made up for that in December and February.
We even had two record maximum rainfall events this month in Columbus. On Feb. 22, Columbus saw 1.4” of rain in one day breaking the old record in 1971. On Feb. 17, Columbus broke the record for daily rainfall of 1.83” with the old record being in 1910.
With only a few days left in February, the Climate Prediction Center has the next few weeks forecasting above average precipitation for most of the eastern half of the country.
With all this rain, David Specht, President of The Waterworks, suggests that you start your spring preps early.
“Besides the heavy rain events we have seen, there are other things to think about. Hoses and facets during the winter might have frozen which could cause problems if you want to run them in the warmer weather”, says David Specht.
Keeping up on the maintenance of your sump pump, gutters and outdoor facets is important to monitor as we change seasons.