NORFOLK, Va. — With the Memorial Day weekend fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to dig into Norfolk's weather history on the holiday.
There certainly has been a wide variety of weather occurring around Hampton Roads on past Memorial Days. However, variations are even more extreme for holidays during the late fall, winter, and early spring.
Looking back at records kept for Norfolk since 1874, you'll notice most of our Memorial Days have seen pleasant high temperatures, not too hot, and not too cold. 113 times Norfolk has had a high temperature in the 70s or 80s. There have been 15 Memorial Days that were 90° or warmer.
The average high temperature is 80°, and the warmest Memorial Day on record for Norfolk was in 1895 when Norfolk reached 94°.
Now let's talk cold! Or should I say "cool." Truth is, Norfolk is never really that cold on Memorial Day. Morning lows typically are in the 50s and 60s. There were three years when the morning temperatures dipped into 40s.
The coolest low temperature on record for Memorial Day is another long-standing record, 48° back in 1884. The holiday averages a low temperature of 62°.
Obviously, it has never snowed on a Memorial Day in Hampton Roads, but you may wonder how often it rains.
Norfolk averages .15" of rainfall on the holiday. The wettest on record happened in 2000 when Memorial Day activities were soaked with 1.56" of rain.
Rain has occurred on the holiday 37% of the days on record.
What about this year? As of Thursday morning, it looks like we will want to keep an eye on the radar over the extended weekend. Isolated showers and storms are possible on Saturday and again on Monday. There is a lower risk of wet weather on Sunday.
The 2024 Memorial Day forecast includes above-average temperatures, and about a 40% chance of showers and storms.
Things may change a bit between now and then, so stay tuned for updates from the 13News Now weather team!
