The town did exceed its average annual rainfall, it actually exceeded the annual rainfall by 3.6 inches.
you know this by dividing the rainfall of 43.2 by 3.6, which shows you that 43.2 is the rainfall over a 12 month period when we are looking at a 9 month period. Then you want to times 3.6 by 9 which gives you 32.4, after doing so times 4 times to find out the new rainfall and then subtract the new average by the old to find that it did exceed it.
