By Russell Russ

Norfolk’s last several months have hovered around average levels for precipitation. Through June, the year’s rainfall deficit was 2.09 inches and people were saying we needed rain. This would change dramatically during the first half of July.

The first week of the month was wet, and many Independence Day plans were certainly dampened. By July 4, the rainfall total was 2.68 inches. Then came the extreme rainfalls of July 9 to10. Within a 24-hour period the NWS weather station on Windrow Road recorded 6.65 inches of precipitation. Much of that rain fell from 1 to 3 p.m. on July 9 and in the pre-dawn hours of the following day. Several reports from the South Norfolk area came in at 10 to 12 inches and possibly even more. It is hard to believe rainfall totals could be so different over a relatively short distance, but it can happen with torrential rains from storm cells that move very slowly.

Flooding and washout damage occurred in many parts of Litchfield County, but South Norfolk clearly was ground zero for this big weather event. State, town and private roads were undermined, gullied or completely washed out. Route 272 was closed from Bruey Road to the Goshen town line. Some town roads could be closed for months. Anyone with a gravel driveway was likely to have had some damage.  

If this wasn’t bad enough, Norfolk received another 2.35 inches of rain on July 12-14, followed by 2.75 more inches from a quick deluge on the morning of July 16. Most of the major damage was due to the July 9 to 10 rains, but the additional storms certainly did not help those trying to make flood repairs. More light rain fell on July 18 and 21. So, in a span of less than three weeks, Norfolk’s rainfall deficit of 2.09 inches changed to a surplus of 8.04 inches.   

By July 16, as recorded at Norfolk’s NWS weather station, July 2023 had already become Norfolk’s wettest July and fourth wettest of any month on record since 1932. As of July 21, the rainfall total for the month was 14.46 inches. While it may not be a good thing, it is still somehow impressive to have July 2023 on the same high rankings list as The Flood of ’55 (August) and The Hurricane of ’38 (September). As far as damage from a weather event goes, this has to be one of the larger and more costly ones that has hit Norfolk in decades. Norfolk once again—not for snow or for good reasons—found itself on the front page of major newspapers and featured on local and even national news broadcasts. July’s weather was one for the record books.