Eighth Wettest May on Record

By Russell Russ

After two years in a row with lovely May weather, this May was far from lovely. It was cloudy, foggy and wet for a good portion of the month. Nice days were hard to come by. It rained during 22 of the month’s 31 days. With little sunshine, it felt cooler than usual, but it came in just a little above normal for temperature. We need the rain (I guess) but let us hope June brings better weather to Norfolk. It was a wet Memorial Day weekend, but fortunately Memorial Day itself had nice weather. It is always a good thing to have nice weather for the parades and holiday events.

May’s low temperature of 36 degrees was observed on May 1. The high of 80 was observed on May 3. There were no daily record temperatures this month. With an average monthly mean temperature of 56.1, it was 1.2 degrees above normal. So far, every month in 2025 has been above normal for monthly mean temperatures. Not crazy warm, just a little above normal. That was the case last May as well. Norfolk’s warmest May occurred in 2015 with a temperature of 61.8 degrees, the coldest was in 1967 with 46.8.
The total precipitation recorded for the month was 6.94 inches, 2.60 inches above normal. It was Norfolk’s eighth wettest May over the last 94 years. There were two thunderstorms this month, on May 2 and 3. The May 3 storm came with some wind that caused power outages and minor damage just to the east of Norfolk. It was hard to go two days without having some rainfall. Through May, the total precipitation for 2025 totaled 19.27 inches. This was 1.34 inches below normal. We are getting to the point where we do not have to say we need the rain every time it rains. Most of us probably stopped saying that sometime in May after it rained seemingly every day of the month. Norfolk’s wettest May was in 1984 with 12.34 inches, the driest was in 1980 with 1.31 inches.

There was no snowfall in May this year. This was 0.4 inch below normal, but it is not uncommon to see no snowfall in May. It is more common to see at least some flurries during a few days in May. In fact, the last time snow flurries were seen in Norfolk was on April 16. The last measurable snowfall occurred April 11-12 when Norfolk picked up 5.8 inches.

An early look at June’s weather through June 22 showed that temperatures were running just a little above normal. As in May, there were a fair number of cloudy, foggy and rainy days, but at least the sun came out more than it did in May. It reached a record 88 degrees on June 5, and two more records were broken on June 23 and June 24 for the summer’s first heat wave. The high on June 23 was 92 degrees, beating out the record of 89 set in 1943. The temperature climbed another degree on June 24, breaking the record of 88 set in 1938. Norfolk, on average, only gets to 90 or above two to three times a year. Summer is definitely showing itself during the latter part of June. Some would say it is about time summer showed up. Rainfall through June 22 totaled 3.54 inches. It is looking like June might come in about normal for rainfall.

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