Near Normal for a Change

By Russell Russ 

April’s weather this year was fairly normal. It’s refreshing not having to say warmest or wettest on record. The month started off on the wintry side– normal for April—but temperatures rebounded and came in just a little above normal. We had only a handful of nice sunny days. Unlike last year, when there were hardly any forsythia flowers, this was a good spring with the first blooms showing up around the normal time of April 7-14. Lilacs also broke bud and flowered at about normal time. 

With an average monthly mean temperature of 45.0, April was 1.9 degrees above normal. It was – near normal. April’s low temperature of 26 degrees was observed on April 25 and the high of 74 was observed on April 29. There were no daily temperature records set this month. Norfolk’s warmest April was in 2010 with an average of 49.4 degrees and the coldest was in 1943 with 36.8 degrees. 

Total precipitation recorded for the month was 5.56 inches, 1.28 inches above normal. April 2 to 4, when rain changed to snow, we picked up 2.09 inches, then on April 11 to 12 we picked up another 2.12 inches of rain. There were numerous days with lesser amounts; in fact, it was hard to go two or three days without any precipitation. Norfolk’s driest April was in 1941 with 1.15 inches; the wettest was in 1983 with 10.79 inches. 

Through April, the total annual precipitation was 22.55 inches, 6.28 inches above normal. In comparison, in 2023, we were at 15.30 inches, 0.97 inch below normal. Thanks to a very wet period from July through December, the year 2023 finished as Norfolk’s fifth wettest year on record. Let us all hope that we do not see a repeat of the excessive rainfall amounts that we saw during the second half of last year. 

The snowfall total for the month was 3.5 inches, which all came on April 4. It was gone within a few days. Norfolk saw a little snow, sleet and graupel (snow pellets) during that first week, but there was no more wintry precipitation after April 6. Norfolk’s average April snowfall amount is 6.1 inches, but we’ve had many Aprils with little or no snowfall. The snowiest April was in 1997 when Norfolk accumulated an impressive 31.1 inches.

Through April, the 2024 calendar year snowfall was 38.2 inches, 26.2 inches below normal. Snowfall for 2023-2024 winter season (October-April) was 45.5 inches, a total of 43.2 inches below normal. Assuming there is no snowfall in May (there was none through May 25), this will rank as the sixth least snowy winter on record. The top three in that category are: 2015-2016 with 35.5 inches; 1994-1995 with 40.9 inches, and 2021-2022 with 43.7 inches. Norfolk’s snowiest winter season was in 1955-1956 with 177.4 inches. 

A look ahead at May’s weather through May 22 showed temperatures running a little above normal. A big warm-up the week before Memorial Day will increase the monthly average for sure, but the month will not rank overly warm. Precipitation was running about two inches below normal with no snowfall observed. At this point, a month with below normal precipitation is not such a terrible thing. Can we try for two months? 

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