With a season to go, Philly already has had a year’s worth of rain

September already ranks among the elite for rain in Philadelphia, and if reality obeys the forecasts this has a good shot at becoming one of the five-wettest Septembers in official records dating to 1871.

With the 0.70 inches measured at Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday the monthly total crested past 8 inches for only the ninth time, according to the National Weather Service.

Philly also marked a milestone with Sunday's rainfall: It pushed the annual precipitation total — which includes, rain and melted snow, sleet, and hail — to 41.58 inches. The annual normal is 41.53. And fall has just started.

As Frank Kummer reported, the Jan. 1 through Aug. 31 period was the wettest first eight months of the year on record in Philly.

And compared to other stations west of the Delaware, the airport has been a relative dry spot.

Montgomery County had received 49.1 inches since Jan. 1 through Sunday; Chester County, 49; Delaware County, 47.8; and Bucks, 46.2, according to the Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center, which averages measurements from stations spread throughout the counties.

Even the rest of Philadelphia has been rainier than the airport, by the forecast center's count, with the countywide total at 46.5. Generally, rain amounts to the west of the city have been heftier.

The city's neighboring New Jersey counties have annual totals similar to the airport, although Atlantic City already has reached its annual average precipitation, as have Mount Pocono and Reading;  close to 57 inches for the year.

Rain is expected late Monday night around here, and, with chances of showers in the forecast through Thursday, it looks like the sun is going to take the week off.

Here are the Septembers with 8 inches or more of rain at Philadelphia's official measuring stations:

1999 — 13.07

1911 — 12.10

1882 — 12.09

2011 — 10.27

1960 — 8.78

1876 — 8.77

1946 — 8.36

2018 — 8.31 (and counting)