Another dry month

By Russell Russ

Here are the weather highlights from September, as recorded at Norfolk’s National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Observer Station, Norfolk 2 SW, by the Great Mountain Forest Corporation.

If you like beautiful, late summer weather with pleasant temperatures and clear skies, 26 out of 30 days in September were just that.

The high for the month was 87 degrees on September 8. The month’s low of 37 degrees was observed on September 17. The average September temperature was 62.5 degrees, which was 4.2 degrees above normal.

This was the fourth warmest September in the last 75 years. There were three record setting warm days this month: 86 degrees on September 7 (one degree over the previous record from 1945), 85 degrees on September 26 (five degrees over the 1970 record) and 80 degrees on September 27 (four degrees over the 1933 record).

September was unusually dry. Total precipitation for the month was 2.88 inches, 1.77 inches below normal. Interestingly, 2.47 inches of the month’s total rainfall occurred in a 24-hour time span between September 10 and 11. In a single hour on September 10, the weather station recorded 1.3 inches of rain. On September 11, more waves of heavy rain hit Norfolk. Had it not been for this two-day rain event, we may have recorded the driest month in all our 75 years of weather observing.

The only thunderstorms of the month both hit on September 8. There were light frosts in certain low lying valleys during the early morning hours of September 17, 18 and 19.

Norfolk’s total precipitation for 2007 through September is 32.97 inches, 6.12 inches below an average year.

A special note for those who check the Weather Underground website for local weather:

Please remember, the Great Mountain Forest Station that provides data to Weather Underground is not the official weather station used to report data to the National Weather Service.  The station reporting to Weather Underground is a small, separate station that is accurate for the most part, but does sometimes provide inaccurate precipitation readings.  This is partly why it’s not our official station and explains why you could see different readings between that station and what you see listed here.