Good Old-Fashioned Winter

By Russell Russ

In 2014 the weather station began its eighty-third year of continuous weather observation and the year started off with Old Man Winter showing us what he’s made of. January is on average our coldest and snowiest month, and it was true to form this year. Three days this month recorded high temperatures at or above 51 degrees, but there were also nine days with low temperatures at or below 0. Last January there were only two days at or below 0. There were only four days with no snow cover on the ground. The maximum snow-on-ground depth was 10 inches.

With an average mean temperature of 17.5 degrees, January was 3.2 degrees below normal. It was the second coldest January in the last ten years, but only our nineteenth coldest January on record, tied with 1984. The coldest January on record was 1982, when the average mean temperature was 11.7 degrees. The month’s high temperature of 56 degrees was observed on January 11, a record high for that date, beating the old daily record of 54 set in 1975. The low temperature of minus 9 degrees, our coldest temperature of the season so far, was observed on January 22. It did not set a record though. A low temperature of minus 5 on January 3 did tie the 1981 and 2008 record low for that date.

January’s total precipitation of 4.12 inches was just a little above normal. The monthly snowfall total of 25.8 inches was 4.5 inches above normal and 18.2 inches more than last January. The snowfall total for this winter season, October through January, is 43.3 inches, 2.8 inches below normal, but 13.8 inches more than we had last year through January.

During the morning of January 6, the temperature hit 53 degrees. The very next morning the temperature was minus 2. A 55-degree temperature drop was recorded in 22 hours. This winter we are seeing a few warm temperatures here and there, but overall it has been cold and snowy, more like the winters we think Norfolk should be having. It is looking like February will continue this cold and snowy new trend.

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