THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020450
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 67 lines
If you bet it was wetter than normal in July, you're a winner. If you bet it was hotter, tough luck. It wasn't.
In the month just ended, 7.37 inches of rain was dumped at the National Weather Service office at Norfolk International Airport. That's 2.31 inches above normal for July.
And, ``without doubt,'' some areas of Hampton Roads may have received far more rain that that, said Dave Tolleris, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Wakefield.
Most of July's rain came not from wide-ranging events like Tropical Storm Bertha that soaked the entire region. Rather, most of the month's precipitation fell in relatively small storm cells that would soak one area and leave another nearby high and dry.
For instance, a storm on July 18 flooded streets at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront's North End from 49th to 60th streets, but other parts of the region received little or no rain.
As for temperature, the month's average was 77.7, a half-degree below normal. And that, too, owes to the rain.
``There were only seven days of 90 or above, and that's fairly typical of a cool month,'' Tolleris said. ``But it's not so much that we've been in a cold pattern, it's that we've had so much rain.''
During July, it rained on 12 of 31 days; half of those days brought a half-inch or more of rain.
The month's average high temperature was 84.9 degrees, the low 67.5. The highest reading was 95, on the 8th and the lowest was 61, on the 5th.
Bertha, downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm by the time it crossed into Virginia from North Carolina, was the month's big weather event.
Winds gusted to 47 mph at Norfolk International, to 75 mph at Cape Henry in Virginia Beach, and to 110 mph at the third island of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. That last reading came from a monitor placed about 80 feet above the water.
A twister spun off by Bertha danced through the Moonefield section of Smithfield. Thankfully, its path was through the back yards of about 20 houses, causing some damage but not destroying any homes.
While the month's cloudy skies and rain are not what the tourism industry looks for, for others the steady rainfall was good news.
Thanks to the weather, farmers expect to harvest one of the biggest corn crops in years next month - assuming nature doesn't serve up some surprise before then.
Water has tasted nifty in Chesapeake, thanks to the wet weather.
The Northwest River, which supplies about 40 percent of the city's water, has remained relatively fresh, free from high chloride and sodium levels. In past years, low rainfall and winds have allowed brackish water from the Currituck Sound to intrude into the city's drinking water supply.
And the month wasn't all bad for visitors, either: Clear blue skies low humidity produced one of the busiest July 4th weekends in memory on the Outer Banks and in Virginia Beach. And nice weather was the rule on several weekends.
One word of warning, however. Summer's worst heat often comes in August. And the peak of hurricane season?
That's not until Sept. 10. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
THE HIGHS AND LOWS
The month's average high temperature was 84.9 degrees, the low
67.5.
The highest reading was 95, on the 8th, and the lowest, 61, on
the 5th.
KEYWORDS: WEATHER by CNB