WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — If you thought that there has been more rain than usual this month, you aren't imagining things.

 

According to Jay Racela, environmental analysis lab supervisor and lecturer at Williams College, this July is the wettest month since record-keeping started 130 years ago.

 

More than 14 inches of rain has fallen in Williamstown at Hopkins Memorial Forest (Station 1), operated by Williams College as part of a network of instruments that provide data for teaching and research. 

 

The previous monthly record was 13.7 inches, in October 2005. The long-term average rainfall for July is 4.2 inches. According to the National Weather Service, the monthly record for the Albany, N.Y., region was 13.68 inches in October 1868.

 

Racela said news reports suggest that after a relatively dry spring, locations in the central and Southern Berkshires have received even more rainfall than Williamstown. 

 

Excessive moisture has interfered with outdoor events, ruined some crops, flooded basements and small streams and produced the highest flow recorded in 72 years on the Green River in Williamstown. 

 

The flood, on July 9, did not cause much property damage along the Green River, but flooding was widespread in the tristate area downstream from the confluence of the Green and the Hoosic Rivers.