Humid, But Relatively Average

By Russell Russ

After an extremely wet and very warm July, August came in fairly average on all accounts. Unlike last year’s August, which was summer-like, ranked as Norfolk’s warmest August on record and also very dry, this August was basically average. It may be nice to have a weather catastrophe to write about now and again, but it is also nice to have an average month for a change. The highlight of August was humidity and many cloudy days. Not the best highlight.

The low temperature of 47 degrees was observed on Aug. 2. This was 3 degrees above the record low of 44 for that date, which was back in 1947. The high temperature of just 80 degrees was observed on Aug. 13. The high in August was only 80 degrees, and Norfolk hit that only once all month. That is unusual for August, even in Norfolk. The monthly mean temperature of 66.0 degrees was 0.4 degree below normal. By comparison, August 2022’s mean temperature was 71.8 degrees, the warmest August on record. The coolest August on record was in 1964 with 61.5 degrees.

The total precipitation recorded for the month was 4.19 inches, 0.41 inch below normal. August saw some rain, including two days with thunderstorms, but fortunately there were no excessive amounts like we saw in July. August did have more than its fair share of cloudy days, likely keeping temperatures down. There were numerous days with humid conditions. Not hot and humid, just somewhat warm, cloudy and humid. Not the best summer weather, but you cannot win them all.

The reigning champion of wet months for Norfolk is still the infamous Flood of August 1955 with 23.67 inches. Norfolk’s driest August was in 1953 with just 0.65 inch, which was also Norfolk’s fifth driest month of any month.

Through August, the total precipitation for the year was 43.05 inches, 8.70 inches about normal. Compared to last year’s amount through August of 27.53 inches, this year has seen 15.52 more inches of rain. No drought talk this year.

September, through three weeks of the month, was above average for both temperature and rainfall. A string of five days in the 80s to upper 80s surely helped bring up its average. A high of 88 was recorded on Sept, 7. The highest temperature all year was 89 degrees on June 2. Other notable temperatures were 88 on July 6 and 87 on April 14. There have been no days with 90 or above recorded at the Norfolk weather station in 2023. The average for that is two to three days per year. Better luck next year for nicer summer weather. Now it is time to welcome autumn.

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