White Christmas in Norfolk

By Russell Russ

Here are the weather highlights from December 2007 as recorded at Norfolk’s National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Observer Station, Norfolk 2 SW, by the Great Mountain Forest Corporation. Norfolk 2 SW has recorded weather observations since January 1, 1932.

The month’s low temperature of 8 degrees was observed on December 6. The high temperature of 54 degrees was observed on December 23. The average temperature this month was 26.0 degrees which was 1.4 degrees above normal.

The total precipitation recorded for the month was 6.22 inches. This was 1.64 inches above normal. The snowfall total was 22.6 inches. Although this was 5.1 inches above a normal December’s snowfall total, it was by no means a record amount. The snowstorm on December 13 was by far the biggest, dumping 11 inches at the station. There was a snow cover on the ground at the station every day this month. Carrying a solid 8 inches on the ground on December 25, we did have a white Christmas this year.

The month of December had 31 days. Of those 31 days we recorded some sort of precipitation on 22 of them. There were 15 days where sleet or snow was observed. Only one day was recorded as being mostly clear all day. Both Tobey Pond and Wangum Lake froze over for the season on December 6.

In a review of Norfolk’s weather for the 2007 calendar year it appears that we had a fairly typical weather year. There were some low figures and some high figures observed throughout the year, but on average it all summed up to be fairly normal. Norfolk’s 2007 yearly average temperature was 46.0 degrees. This was 1.6 degrees above normal. The yearly total precipitation amount was 48.17 inches. This was 4.32 inches below normal. The yearly snowfall total was 66.6 inches. This was 29.5 inches below normal. Looking back to the end of November it appeared that we may be flirting with top ten records for lack of total precipitation and lack of snowfall, but December changed all that. A common statement being made these days by many weather experts is that we can expect to see big swings in both temperature and precipitation. For now, it appears that they seem to know what they are talking about.