From Cool and Raw to Hot and Humid

By Russell Russ

This May was about average for weather. It was very unlike May 2015, which was near record dry and far and away the warmest May on record. This year the month started out cool and cloudy, and many days had that early spring raw feel to them. Overcast skies and daily high temperatures only in the 40s and 50s gave it almost a March or April feel. It did warm up in midmonth, and then toward the last week of the month it really warmed up, with hot and humid conditions. The weather conditions went from early spring to midsummer. May was our transition month this year.

May’s low temperature of 33 degrees was observed on May 10, and the high temperature of 89 degrees was observed on May 28. The 89 on May 28 was a record for that date, beating the old daily record, from 2012, of 86. With an average monthly temperature of 55.9 degrees, it was 1.1 degrees above normal. In May 2015, the average was 61.8 degrees, the first and only time May’s average monthly temperature broke the 60-degree mark.

The total precipitation recorded for the month was 3.85 inches, 0.50 inches below normal. There were three thunderstorms observed this month, but nothing on the severe side. May’s average snowfall amount is 0.4 inch, and this May there was just a trace of snowfall, from very light snow showers that occurred on May 15 and 16.

For 2016, January through May, our total precipitation amount was 16.71 inches. This is 3.97 inches below normal. We are below normal for the year so far, but it is not too bad yet, and we are in better shape for rainfall than last year. May concluded the winter season for recording seasonal snowfall, and the 35.5 inches of snowfall recorded this winter was the least amount on record for winter snowfall. A strange winter for sure.

What will June’s weather bring us? As Norfolk Now goes to print late in the month, it appears that our rainfall deficit will be increasing. Temperatures are running just a little below normal, although it has felt much cooler than normal. Breezy conditions June 8 through June 14 certainly contributed to the cooler than normal feel.

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