Precipitation Comparisons

Hypothesis
When I first was debating coming to Taiwan I thought: "It's a tropical island, duh..."  This was in comparison with Korea, where I thought about snow and cold.  Tropical tends to be a loaded word.  With it not only are you closer to the equator, but generally you also get more rain.  I also thought that by being a native of Portland, Oregon that I would be prepared for rain and gloomy days.  My girlfriend is from Chicago and I thought that she would have trouble with the rain.


Facts
As it turned out I didn't do my homework and a simple comparison of rainfall would of enlightened me:

Average Annual Rainfall:
Chicago   38 in or 965.2 mm
Portland   43 in or 1,092 mm
Taipei      68 in or 1,727 mm
source: weather.com


Theory
So as you can see Portland isn't really that rainy, it has this popular myth that it is very rainy, but it has about as much rain as Chicago.  Taipei on the other hand has a ton of rain,  and unlike Portland's drizzles, when it rains it pours.