A calm weather month

By Russell Russ

With little rain, no big storms and just a touch of cold air it was rather warm and mostly dry this month. After last October’s effects from Hurricane Sandy and nearly two feet of snow the October before that, it was a nice to be treated gently by Mother Nature this year. September brought a few scattered frosts to the area, but the first frost at the weather station didn’t occur until October 23, ten days later than last year. As usual the foliage peaked in color about the second week of the month.

It is usually nice to have some great Norfolk weather event to report on, but the story this month was that there was no big weather story. Actually, the entire 2013 fall season has been eerily quiet. Have no fear, we live in New England so our next big weather event is probably just around the corner.

The month’s high temperature of 72 degrees was observed on October 4 and the low temperature of 28 degrees was observed on October 30. The average mean temperature was 50.0 degrees, 2.4 degrees above normal. Temperature-wise it was very similar to last October.

The total precipitation for the month was 1.52 inches, 2.79 inches below normal and 4.63 inches below last October. The first observed flurries of the season came during the early morning hours of October 25. There was a little sleet and snow mix early on October 30 as well. The month’s snowfall total came to just a trace. The average snowfall amount for October is 0.9 inches.

Through October, the total precipitation amount for the year was 46.62 inches. Over the last two months we have decreased our rainfall surplus for the year, but through October, thanks to a wet summer, we were still 2.96 inches above normal.

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