VIRGINIA BEACH — As if anyone living in Virginia Beach needs to read it in the media, the last couple of months have been, shall we say wet.
Or, maybe “very wet” works even better.
With a few days still to go, August has already recorded 7.31 inches of rain falling at the Norfolk International Airport.
That’s 3.5 inches above average for the month – so nearly double the usual amount – but nowhere near the wettest August on record, which was in 1942 when some 15.61 inches of rain fell.
The driest August on record was in 1930, when just .61 inches dripped from the sky.
While the National Weather Service doesn’t have a reading station in Virginia Beach, meteorologist Eswar Iyer said even more rain has almost certainly fallen here.
Last month was even wetter, with 9.21 inches falling at the airport, nearly four inches more than the average July.
“Looking back at the July 22-25 event, it was more of a situation where we had a south-southeasterly flow sending up tropical moisture, and several upper level disturbances in the region that brought the heavy rain,” Iyer said.
The wettest July on record locally was 1994, when 14.37 inches of rain fell, while the driest was in 1993, when a miniscule .37 inches was recorded.
Iyer said the last couple of months have been lacking the upper level high pressure systems that tend to settle in over the area and bring drier weather – a situation that has affected much of the U.S. East Coast.
But, he said, Thursday should begin a dry stretch and lead to a nice weekend, with next week also offering a break in the rain.
Predicting much further out than that though is difficult, he added.
