More Heat and Humidity

By Russell Russ

August continued our summer of heat and humidity here in Norfolk. It was another hot and humid month with above-average rainfall, kind of like it has been all summer long. If you like your summers hot then this year was your year.

August’s low temperature of 52 degrees was observed on August 24. The month’s high temperature of 88 degrees was observed on four days, August 6, 7, 28 and 29. The high of 88 on August 6 tied the 1955 record high for that date. Temperatures were very near record levels on August 7, 8, 28 and 29. The monthly mean temperature of 70.9 degrees was 4.6 degrees above normal. This August was the second warmest August in the last 87 years, very near the August 2001 record of 71.0 degrees. It was also tied with July 2016 and July 1994 as the seventh warmest month of any month since 1932. The coolest August on record was in 1964 with 61.5 degrees.

The total precipitation recorded for the month was 5.70 inches, 1.07 inches above normal. It ranks as Norfolk’s sixteenth wettest August on record. Not all that impressive, but it did continue our recent trend of months with above average monthly rainfall. Norfolk’s wettest August (by far) was in 1955 with 23.67 inches, the driest was in 1953 with just 0.65 inches.

Through August, the total precipitation amount for this year was 40.31 inches. This is 5.83 inches above normal and is also over 10 inches more than we received through August of last year. Compared to the last several years, this year seems like it should be working on some kind of record, but we need to remember that the last several years have all been on the low to very low end of the yearly rainfall spectrum. We also have four more months to go to close out 2018.

What will September’s weather bring to Norfolk? Through September 19 it was just a continuation of the warm, humid and wet weather that we have seen all summer. Temperatures were running over 7 degrees above normal and rainfall already was 5.12 inches, almost a half inch above the monthly normal. Remnants of Hurricane Florence hit Norfolk with 2.61 inches of rain on September 17 and 18. Heavy rain fell in Norfolk for a while, but the rainfall totals were nowhere near what North and South Carolina received when Florence made landfall there. Some foliage began to turn by early in the month, but for the most part everything remained very summer like into the third week of the month. Eventually fall will be upon us.

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