Second Driest September

By Russell Russ

September’s weather was seasonable and beautiful; not too hot and not too cold. The drawback with the beautiful weather was that it was also very dry. Too much of a good thing eventually might not be a good thing. This September, with its majority of mostly clear or partly cloudy days and very little rain, was the opposite of last September, which was mostly cloudy with many days of rain. Oddly enough, temperatures for the two Septembers were similar.

The weather in 2024 has developed a pattern: March and April were wet (“who’ll stop the rain” wet), May and June were on the dry side and July and August were wet again. Then, September (and October) were very dry. Does that mean November and December will be wet? We shall see.

September’s low temperature of 43 degrees was observed on Sept. 3 and the high of 80 was observed on both Sept. 15 and 20. The Month’s mean temperature of 60.8 degrees was not high-ranking and fairly normal, just 1.8 degrees above normal. It is (or used to be) normal to have a few days with frost in September, but none was observed this year. There were no temperature extremes or daily records this month. Norfolk’s warmest September was in 2015 with a mean temperature of 64.7 degrees and the coolest was in 1963 with 53.6 degrees.

The month’s rainfall total was 1.18 inches, 3.49 inches below normal. It ranked as Norfolk’s second driest September of the last 93 years. Last September’s 11.33 inches of rain -10.15 inches more than this year- ranked it as the fourth wettest. Norfolk’s wettest September was 1938 (Hurricane of ’38) with 13.40 inches and the driest was in 2014 with just 1.16 inches. Had it not been for a little bit of rain (0.04 inches) on the second-to-last day of the month, this September could have been the driest.

Through this September, the yearly precipitation totaled 42.80 inches, 3.78 inches above normal. Every month of 2024 has ended with the year total being in surplus. After a peak precipitation surplus of 7.27 inches after August, we are now eating our way through that.

In a preview of October’s weather, through Oct. 25, the key word is DRY. With just 0.54 inchest measured, this October is ranking as Norfolk’s driest. The driest October over the last 93 years was in 1963 with 0.63 inches. There is a very good chance that 2024 will become the driest. Temperatures were running about four degrees above normal. A Oct. 20-23 warm spell, with two days of record high temperatures, certainly helped this.

September’s beautiful (and dry) weather has extended well into October, and the forecast shows dry conditions through the end of the month. With extreme fire danger levels and forest fires a big concern in late October, let’s hope that the 2024 pattern of two months dry/two months wet plays out and that November and December will record at least normal amounts of precipitation.

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