Those who had a feeling August was wetter than usual now have an official confirmation of this due to the latest statistical report from Mount Airy’s F.G. Doggett Water Plant.
It revealed that last month’s rainfall total more than doubled what this area normally receives during August. Personnel at the water plant, the city’s official weather-monitoring station, recorded 9.81 inches, dwarfing the local average for the eighth month of the year of 4.29 inches.
This occurred despite measurable amounts on only 13 of August’s 31 days. The total largely resulted due to the output for a single day, 5.54 inches on Aug. 4, which was accompanied by flooded roadways and other problems in the region.
August rainfall also pushed the annual precipitation total into above-normal territory, after being below average earlier in the summer. As of Aug. 31, Mount Airy has received 36.4 inches, which is 4.74 inches, or 14.9 percent, above average so far in 2016.
On the temperature side of things, although August might have seemed brutal at times with persistent heat and humidity, conditions actually ended up cooler than usual overall.
The average temperature last month was 76.3 degrees, exactly two degrees less than the 78.3-degree local average for August.
Its monthly high of 93 was logged on Aug. 27, which was balanced out on the other end of the scale just a few days earlier with a pair of 58-degree readings recorded for both Aug. 22 and 23.
Fog was noted on six days last month, which some old-timers believe is a precursor for how many big snows will occur this coming winter.
Weather records have been kept in Mount Airy since 1924.