A very dry month
By Russell Russ
Here are the weather highlights from August as recorded at Norfolk’s National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Observer Station, Norfolk 2SW, by the Great Mountain Forest Corporation. Norfolk 2SW has recorded weather observations since January 1, 1932.
The month’s low temperature of 46 degrees was observed on August 11 and again on August 19. The high temperature of 90 degrees was observed on August 25. The average temperature this month was 67.6 degrees which was 1.7 degrees above normal. Through the summer months we managed to hit the 90 degree mark once in July and once again in August. This is just about normal for a Norfolk summer.
The total precipitation recorded for the month was 1.92 inches. This was 2.64 inches below normal. Here at the station in Norfolk it was our eighth driest August in the last 75 years. Bradley International Airport, with just 0.66 inches of rain, recorded its third driest August on record. Norfolk’s total precipitation for 2007 through August is now 30.09 inches. Comparing this to the last 75 years we are now 4.35 inches below an average year.
This month’s only thunderstorm occurred on August 17. It came with a little wind that did cause some minor tree damage and a relatively brief power outage here in town. No tornados here, but on August 8 in a very rare event one did hit the New York City area.
There were about 9 days this month with typical hot and humid weather, but thankfully no prolonged heat waves. There were about 15 really nice days with a few that made it seem like early autumn. Here in Norfolk you can usually start to see a little fall color towards the end of August, but this year due to the dry conditions you could really start seeing some spotty color as early as the second week of the month and by month’s end there was noticeable color just about everywhere you looked. Last year the maples were sick and didn’t provide much autumn color. This year we are getting an early showing and it looks like it may be a colorful autumn.
