Norfolk’s June Weather  

By Russell Russ

Temperature-wise Junewas exactly normal. It doesn’t happen too often, but the average temperature this month (63.3 degrees) was exactly average for the month of June. There were some hotter days and even a record high temperature, but it all averaged out to a fairly typical summer month.

June continued the pattern of all other 2012 months, except for May, of being drier than normal. We are inching towards drought conditions. Fortunately for us we are nowhere near the drought levels that many other parts of the country are recording. We have had a few thunderstorms, but fortunately (again) Norfolk has been spared from the more severe storms that other areas have seen this summer.

The total precipitation for the month was 3.19 inches, 1.56 inches below normal and 4.20 inches below the June 2011 total. There were three thunderstorms observed at the weather station this month, none of which produced hail.

The month’s low temperature of 44 degrees was observed on both June 6 and 7 and the high temperature of 89 degrees was observed on both June 20 and 21. The June 20 temperature was a record for that date, beating the old record of 87 set back in 1932 and 1995. Our 89 degrees on June 21 just missed the 1934 record by one degree. Our other hot day was June 29 when we reached 88 degrees, but that was a far cry from the all-time Norfolk record of 101 set back on June 29, 1933.

As hot as it has seemed, we have not topped 90 degrees here at the Norfolk weather station (as of the end of June). Typically, we hit 90 or above two to three times a year.    

Through June this year, the total precipitation amount for the year was 17.68 inches. This is 7.91 inches below normal and 15.34 inches below where we were after June 2011. Through the first half of 2012 we are just about at the opposite end of the rainfall spectrum from where we were last year. What a difference a year makes.

Weather observations are recorded at Norfolk’s National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Observer Station, Norfolk 2 SW, by the Great Mountain Forest Corporation.