General
The eastern half of the contiguous United States east of the 98th meridian, the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, and the Sierra Nevada range are the wetter portions of the nation, with average rainfall exceeding 30 inches (760 mm) per year. The drier areas are the Desert Southwest, Great Basin, valleys of northeast Arizona, eastern Utah, central Wyoming, and the Willamette Valley. Increased warming within urban heat islands leads to an increase in rainfall downwind of cities.
Read more about this topic: United States Rainfall Climatology
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