Norfolk’s October 2006 Weather
By Russell Russ
Here are the weather highlights from October 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.
It was pretty much a normal October for Norfolk. There were no days that stood out with any sort of record. We did have our fourth consecutive Halloween with temperatures of 60 degrees or higher. The 68 degrees recorded on Halloween this year made for a very pleasant evening for treat-or-treating.
The month’s high temperature of 73 degrees was recorded on the 4th and the low of 25 degrees was recorded on the 27th. Our station is fairly high in elevation so there were most likely some even colder low temperatures observed in some of the area’s low lying valleys. The month’s average temperature was 46.9 degrees which was just 0.6 degrees below normal. The 5.99” of precipitation recorded was 2.00” above normal. There were heavy rains on the 11th and 12th and then again on the 28th. A few rumbles of thunder could be heard on the afternoon of the 28th. We saw our first snow flurries of the season on the morning of the 29th, but no measurable snow fell. October normally receives a little less than 1” of snow on average.
Looking at the 2006 yearly totals, through the month of October we have recorded 48.68” of precipitation, making us 5.60” above normal. Our year to date snowfall of only 48.9” is 21.5” below normal. Here in Norfolk we normally get about 96” of snow per year, so we would need just about 4 feet of snow from November 1st to the end of December to get to our normal yearly snowfall total.
