Chance for dry December trickles away

Well, it was quite the longshot anyway.

By the time you read these words, Baker City’s bid for meteorological immortality likely will be doused.

Literally.

For the first 27 days of December, there was no measurable precipitation at the Baker City Airport.

This brought the city to within four days of a feat that hasn’t been pulled off here since at least 1913: a dry December.

But those final four days are apt to be as soggy as the preceding four weeks were desiccated, according to the National Weather Service

As of 9 a.m. the city was, officially, still in the running for the milestone.

The total rainfall from the storm that arrived Tuesday evening was just a trace — which doesn’t count, as far as the Weather Service is concerned.

But the forecasters also predict a good chance of rain through Friday.

That almost certainly will boost December’s total to at least .01 of an inch, the threshold for measurable precipitation.

The city’s record for driest December seems likely to survive.

That record was set in 1976, when just .05 of an inch was measured at the airport.

Statistically, December is the third-wettest month here, with an average of 1.02 inches of precipitation.