Seattle has had almost no sunny days since October

Seattle has had just nine days since October with 30 percent cloud cover or less. And the rain? Don't even get us started.

Pictured: A ferry heads into a brief rainstorm on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 9, 2017. Seattle has had just nine days since October with 30 percent cloud cover or less. And the rain? Don't even get us started.

Pictured: A ferry heads into a brief rainstorm on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 9, 2017. Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 44 Caption Close Seattle has had almost no sunny days since October 1 / 44 Back to Gallery

The water year starts Oct. 1, an appropriate time for Seattle.

Usually, that's about the time things turn cloudy, windy and rainy ahead of the typically mild winter that occasionally lets us walk around casting long shadows on the often damp ground.

But this winter, that dark and dreary period never seemed to end, with records nearly matched or broken as rain fell and fell and fell and continued to fall (and continues to fall).

The National Weather Service (NWS) tweeted out some numbers Monday evening that show just how little sunshine we have seen since the water year began last October.

Of the 178 days that had passed since the water year began, Seattle had 123 with rain or snow, 149 with more than 70 percent cloud cover, and just nine -- that's nine, as in two more than a week -- with less than 30 percent cloud cover.

And in all those rainy (and snowy) days, a LOT of water fell across the region.

Seattle set a new record for October with 10.05 inches -- more than an inch above the previous record, set in 2003. November and December mellowed out for precipitation in the city, but then things stepped up again in January with a healthy (though not near the record) 7.45 inches.

And then February began.

Seattle saw 8.85 inches of precipitation fall in 2017's second month, just a hair behind the 1961 record of 9.11 inches.

To date this month, Seattle has seen 6.66 inches of rain fall, about 3.38 inches more than normal and enough to make it the sixth-wettest March on record.

Combined, February and March have had the most precipitation ever recorded -- 15.56 inches, just above the 2014 record of 15.55, according to the NWS. That's only the second time in 120 or more years that those two months have seen more than 15 inches of precipitation.

So, yeah, it really has been a lot darker, rainier and gloomier than normal around here.

It's not just you.

Daniel DeMay covers Seattle culture, business and transportation for seattlepi.com. He can be reached at 206-448-8362 or danieldemay@seattlepi.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Daniel_DeMay.