If it’s a soaking you’re seeking, here are the best rainy destinations

Mother Nature teased Southern California on Monday with a bit of rain, which may have stirred a genuine craving for the sight, smell and feel of more.

You can slake your thirst for moisture with a trip to locations that practically guarantee you’ll spend time amid mist and raindrops. Some of our suggestions:

The rainiest place in the United States is on top of Mt. Waialeale on Kauai, where the average yearly rainfall is 422 inches, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Second place goes to Little Port Walter on Baranof Island in southeast Alaska, which receives an average of 225 inches a year, making it the wettest permanent settlement in the U.S.

The wettest locations in the contiguous 48 states during the past 30 years are often where you’d expect -- the Northwest and Southeast, according to the National Climatic Data Center’s latest tally.

That said, here’s the wildcard: New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington, the 6,288-foot peak in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains. It received an average of almost 102 inches of precipitation a year.

If experiencing weather extremes is on your bucket list, the mountain can fulfill many at once: It’s also the most consistently cold place in the lower 48, with an average of 27 degrees, and a record-holder for the windiest, with a recorded gust of 231 mph, and often the snowiest -- more than 49 inches fell in a 24-hour period in 1969.

You’re almost guaranteed a soaking in the northwest corner of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, where rainfall often averages more than 100 inches a year.

As you’d expect for a place with rain in its name, the nearby Mt. Rainier gets an average of 126 inches of rain, the National Park Service says.

For more scenic, soggy destinations, try these U.S. locations, shown with their annual rainfall, according to the climatic data center:

Quillayute, Wash.: 101.72 inches

Astoria, Ore. : 67.13 inches

Mobile, Ala.: 66.29 inches

Pensacola, Fla.: 64.28 inches

New Orleans: 64.16 inches

Tallahassee, Fla. -- 63.21 inches

Baton Rouge, La. -- 63.08 inches

West Palm Beach, Fla. -- 61.39 inches

Port Arthur, Texas -- 59.89 inches

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