Precipitation this year is close to the overall record — 56.75 inches have fallen since Jan. 1 — making 2018 the second- wettest year in Butler County history.

Meteorologist Lee Hendricks with the National Weather Service said 2018 will likely fall behind 2004 with its 57.41 inches of precipitation.

“We're getting close here,” Hendricks said. “It's not looking like anything significant this coming week ... looking at a total of about a half inch through the 31st, so at this time it doesn't look like we'll be topping that record.”

Hendricks said the rain and snowfall have caused “more than enough issues” with mudslides, landslides and saturated soils.

“All you have to do is really look back through your newspapers,” he said, “even through the summer here with roads getting washed out or houses threatened. That's just merely a product of how wet things have been.”

Zelienople and Harmony have experienced flooding, particularly during the autumn months. Stories of basements needing to be pumped were consistent throughout the year, and Hendricks said precipitation has been “a little bit of a challenge for our farmers, in particular.”

“You generally need three days of dry weather to be able to cut hay, which was a real challenge for them for the most part,” he said.

Construction workers in Butler County, however, didn't seem nearly as affected as farmers.

“We still got a lot of paving done and a lot of our projects closed out,” said Brian Steffy, assistant construction engineer for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. “We kept on moving.”

Steffy said he didn't see the amount of flooding that parts of central Pennsylvania did.

“We really lucked out,” Steffy said. “We kept on building all of our projects (and) didn't have washouts.”

While it may have been an iffy year for outdoor workers, Hendricks said it was exceptionally good for people with well water and for boaters.

“Decent water level and flows weren't that high,” he said.

While Hendricks could not say whether the higher precipitation would continue, he was able to say that January would see “slightly above normal snowfall.” Normal precipitation is around 2.7 inches of liquid and 11.5 inches of snowfall.

Hendricks said he anticipates January will have normal temperatures with highs around 35 degrees and lows around 21.