Washington needs less than an inch of rain over the next 35 days for 2018 to become the wettest year in recorded history. This seems almost inevitable. More rain is predicted for the region both Friday and over the weekend, when the record could fall.

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Baltimore already clinched its wettest year on record having tallied up about 65 inches of rain. It also notched its wettest November on record Saturday (passing the mark of 7.68 inches from 1952), and added more rain on Monday, bringing its monthly total to about eight inches.

Why has it been so wet lately?

It has to do with the position of the jet stream, which is the river of high-altitude winds along which storms track. It has persistently passed directly over the Mid-Atlantic, and its attendant storms have drenched the D.C. region time and time again.

The latest big storm swept through Saturday, unloading 1.42 inches of rain in Washington while pushing some streams over their banks. It marked the 22nd time this year that at least an inch of rain has fallen on a calendar day, a record.

Perhaps the seemingly nonstop rain makes you feel hopeless ...

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Still the rain kept pourin’/Fallin' on my ears/And I wonder, still I wonder/Who’ll stop the rain? — Creedence Clearwater Revival

Or maybe you recognize that at some point, it has to end ...

So never mind the darkness/We still can find a way/’Cause nothin' lasts forever/Even cold November rain — Guns N' Roses