Top Notch Summer Weather

By Russell Russ

Last year’s title for August was, “Not the Best Summer Weather.” Two years ago, it was about the same. This year, it was the complete opposite. Many people have said the weather this August was the best they could remember. Numerous sunny days, not much humidity and only a few rainy days. Near perfect if you look past the fact that it was on the dry side. Like June and July, it seemed dry, but in the end, the monthly rainfall totals for all three months, here in Norfolk, were just a little below normal.

August’s high temperature of 87 degrees was observed on Aug. 12 and 13. The low of 44 was observed on Aug. 28. The monthly mean temperature of 65.6 degrees was 0.8 degrees below normal. Very near normal, but technically below normal. It was Norfolk’s first below-normal temperature month since November 2023. There were only a few days with very warm temperatures and some humidity. A majority of the month was sunny with low humidity and pleasant temperatures. There were no daily records set this month. The warmest August, and now sixth warmest of any month, was in 2022 with 71.8 degrees. The coolest August on record came in 1964 with 61.5 degrees.

The total precipitation recorded for the month was 4.25 inches, 0.35 inches below normal. Only six days had some rain and only three of those had measurable rainfall. Amazingly, there was not one thunderstorm observed at the station. It has also been a very quiet hurricane season. Hurricane Erin came up the east coast on Aug. 21 but was far enough out to sea to give Norfolk just a couple of hours of breezy conditions. Norfolk’s wettest August and wettest of any month remains August 1955 (Flood of ’55) with 23.67 inches. The driest was in 1953 with just 0.65 inches, which was also Norfolk’s fifth driest month of any month.

Our rainfall all summer has been very spread out, not evenly distributed throughout the month as is more “normal” for this area. We are getting the precipitation; it just comes more in spurts these days. Southern Connecticut and Bridgeport most notably, just recorded their driest summer on record. Bridgeport only recorded 2.34 inches from June to August. By comparison, Norfolk recorded 12.16 inches during this span. This was 1.58 inches below normal for Norfolk, but over three months and not terrible overall. Through August, the total precipitation amount for the year was 31.43 inches. This was 2.92 inches below normal and 10.19 inches below last year’s total through August. In 2025, only May recorded above normal monthly precipitation.

The first three weeks of September were much like August: very pleasant, yet dry. Labor Day weekend was beautiful from start to finish. Rainfall was scarce. Up to Sept. 23, there were just four days with measurable rainfall. As of Sept. 23, the month was ranking as the driest on record. That changed during the evening of Sept. 23, when we finally received some much-needed rain (with a few rumbles of thunder). The forecast was for additional rain for several days. It will likely be yet another month that seemed so dry, yet will come in about average. The foliage began turning early in the month and by the third week the trend was very noticeable. The sugar maple coloring seems off this year. It may not be the best foliage year, but aren’t they all beautiful in their own way?

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