http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

We were going through a stretch of rather dry conditions without widespread, soaking rain showers.  For example, August finished 2.21 inches below the monthly average rain at DCA with only 1.23 inches in the rain guage.  As I mentioned back in early April, our region often relies on tropical systems, such as tropical storms, hurricanes, and especially their remnants, to provide prolonged and beneficial rainfall in the summer.  Tropical Storm Hanna did just that for our area, and I know Hanna may have given some areas more rain than they had bargained for, overall, it proved pretty healthy.  As a matter of fact, it was probably a good thing our soil was rather dry and not saturated, or Hanna would've been much more problematic for many people.  Numerous locations on our WeatherBug network recieved 6 inches or more of rain within 4 hours or so especailly in parts of Fairfax and Prince William Counties from Hanna.  Here is a list of rainfall totals so far this month of September from select locations in our WeatherBug network.  Of course, most of the rain came from TS Hanna on the 6th. 

• Oakton, VA (Waples Mill ES): 9.59" 
• Springfield, VA (Forestdale ES): 7.69"
• Fairfax, VA (Oak View ES): 7.02"
• Mclean, VA (Cooper MS): 6.98"
• Woodbridge, VA (R Dean Kilby School): 6.96"
• Woodbridge, VA (Forest Park HS): 6.76
• Chevy Chase, MD (Chevy Chase ES): 6.71"
• Chantilly, VA (Chantilly HS): 6.49"
• Potomac, MD (The Bullis School): 6.25"
• Frederick, MD (The Banner School): 4.88"
• Alexandria, VA (Island Creek ES): 4.75"
• Leesburg, VA (Simpson MS): 5.27"
• Leonardtown, MD (Leonardtown MS): 2.35"

We still have about two thirds of the month to go.  For comparison purposes, our average September rainfall at the three major airports ranges from 3.79" at DCA to 3.98" at BWI-TM.