These towns got 100+ inches of rain in 2020

UPDATE Jan. 4, 2021: Additional readings for 2020 are still coming in. A new report from Highlands, NC takes the #1 spot from Sapphire, NC, previously reported. This has been updated below.

2020 is over, and good riddance. One thing that stands out from the year -- in addition to hurricane season -- is the total rainfall in the Southeast U.S.

Southeast U.S. 2020 Rainfall Totals

NOAA/AccuWeather

Everybody in the pink or purple areas on the map above saw more than 70 inches of rain in 2020 -- between 20 and 40 inches above normal! The white areas on the map indicate that more than 100 inches of rain fell. A list of the 20 CoCoRAHs and official (SERCC) rain gauges, in six states, that hit the century mark follows:

• Highlands, NC: 136.50"

• Sapphire, NC: 132.44"

• Dillard, GA: 126.53"

• Cedar Mountain, NC: 125.53"

• Lake Toxaway, NC: 122.09"

• Brevard, NC: 113.42"

• Caesars Head, SC: 110.23"

• Rabun Gap, GA: 108.74"

• Mt Leconte, TN: 108.43"

• Plantation, FL: 108.15"

• Pompano Beach, FL: 107.27"

• Blowing Rock, NC: 104.94"

• Brevard, NC: 104.74"

• Saluda, NC: 103.52"

• Mount Mitchell, NC: 103.18"

• Pompano Beach Highlands, FL: 102.86"

• Jonas Ridge, NC: 102.42"

• Hendersonville, NC: 102.32"

• Rich Mountain, AR: 101.00"

• Tiger, GA: 100.84"

2020 Rainfall (NOAA WPC)

NOAA

The map above calculated the highest rainfall in each state (this is a combination of gauge and radar estimates) and confirmed over 100 inches in five states (not including Tennessee):

• Florida: 129.02"

• South Carolina: 120.54"

• North Carolina: 120.08"

• Georgia: 116.63"

• Arkansas: 107.44"

Other states in the Pacific Northwest, including California, Washington, and Oregon, also saw over 100 inches, but extreme rainfall is more common in that region and none cracked the top 10 wettest years.

Carolinas Rainfall 2020

SERCC/AccuWeather

A look at selected records in southwest North Carolina and the surrounding area is shown above. Mount Mitchell, North Carolina holds the state record for rainfall -- 134.81 inches -- in 2017-2018. That location was on the outer edges of the extreme precipitation in 2020 but still managed to top 100 inches in a year, for only the second time in history. However, the state record of 139.94 (set in 2018) will stand, according to SERCC, though the 136.5 inches at the Highlands CoCoRAHs station certainly got close.

Florida 2020 Rainfall

SERCC

Outside of the southern Appalachians, a station near Rich Mountain, Arkansas, south of Fort Smith, nearly over the border into Oklahoma, recorded 101 inches. From there, we look at the Fort Lauderdale, Florida area, where no official station hit the 100 mark, but the airport there got very close with 99.7 inches. Although that station had its second-wettest year, four stations north and south of Miami saw their #1 wettest year. Plantation, Florida, a CoCoRAHs station, reported the most at 108.15 inches. (Shout out also to Brian McNoldy's CoCoRAHs station which almost made it at 99.13 inches).

All told, stations in a dozen states in the eastern half of the U.S. had their highest rainfall on record, indicated by dark green "1" boxes in the SERCC map below:

SERCC Rainfall Rankings 2020

SERCC