AMHERST -- If you were thinking it's been raining a lot these last few months, you're not imagining things.

The fall season -- September through November -- was the wettest ever recorded at the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton, the second wettest in Worcester and Providence, Rhode Island, and the fourth wettest in Boston, according to National Weather Service observations.

Total precipitation from January through November was the second highest recorded in Amherst since observations began in 1836, according to a press release from the University of Massachusetts.

For the first 11 months of this year, 59.02 inches of precipitation was recorded in Amherst. That's 1.1 inches shy of the record set in 1888, according to Michael Rawlins, associate director of the Climate System Research Center at UMass, and hydrogeology researcher David Boutt.

Accumulated precipitation was near normal for the first six months of 2018, Rawlins said.

"The anomalously wet weather started from your garden variety thunderstorms, and then increased dramatically as a result of serial fall Nor'easters," Rawlins said.

The researchers said the Fourth National Climate Assessment Report released Nov. 24 highlighted how heavy precipitation is becoming more intense and more frequent across most of the United States, particularly in the Northeast and Midwest, with the trend projected to continue in the future.

Water tables are high for this time of year, Boutt said. "Saturated soil moisture conditions and a high water table will likely have cascading impacts into next spring, where the water table will continue to rise contributing to saturated conditions and perhaps significant flooding."

People can stop worrying about a drought that plagued this area two years ago. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority showed that the Quabbin Reservoir's level has risen sharply this fall, to approximately 97 percent of capacity, and is still rising, according to the UMass press release.