WASHINGTON – Snow didn’t materialize, but Wednesday’s 3.1 inches of rain set a D.C. record for Dec. 7 and a record for any day in December.

“It was actually the wettest day we’ve ever had in any December, on any day. The old record was 2.81 inches. That was set back on Dec. 18, 1977,” says meteorologist Dan Pydynowski, in the WTOP Weather Center.

So far for the month of December, D.C. has had 3.34 inches of precipitation at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. In a normal December, the area usually gets just over 3 inches.

“Even if we don’t have another drop of precipitation all month, we’ll still end up above normal. A very wet day, very impressive,” Pydynowski says

The rain also set daily records at Dulles International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Dulles recorded 2.14 inches of rain and BWI, 2.38 inches.

“Because yesterday was a milder storm, it enabled more moisture to be with it, and then we ended up seeing more rain than snow, maybe just a few wet flakes mixing in at the end,” he says.

“If yesterday was all snow, it would have been a significant snow. The atmosphere just wasn’t cold enough.”

How much snow would it have been?

If it was cold enough, it would have been 25 inches to 30 inches. It takes about 10 inches of snow to make 1 inch of rain, Pydynowski says. Realistically, he says Wednesday’s rain would have been 18 inches to 24 inches of snow.

With all the snow the region has seen in the last few years, those years haven’t made the top 20 list for years with the most precipitation.

Here are the wettest years on record and the amount of precipitation in each:

1. 1889 — 61.33 inches of precipitation
2. 2003 — 60.83 inches of precipitation
3. 1878 — 60.09 inches of precipitation
4. 1886 — 58.17 inches of precipitation
5. 1948 — 57.54 inches of precipitation
6. 1937 — 54.29 inches of precipitation
7. 1891 — 52.95 inches of precipitation
8. 1906 — 52.92 inches of precipitation
9. 1877 — 52.59 inches of precipitation
10. 1942 — 52.03 inches of precipitation
11. 1972 — 51.97 inches of precipitation
12. 1983 — 51.87 inches of precipitation
13. 1953 — 51.17 inches of precipitation
14. 1934 — 51.14 inches of precipitation
15. 1996 — 51.02 inches of precipitation
16. 1905 — 50.64 inches of precipitation
17. 1975 — 50.50 inches of precipitation
18. 1989 — 50.32 inches of precipitation
19. 1884 — 49.96 inches of precipitation
20. 1932 — 49.55 inches of precipitation

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