To say that Mount Airy ended 2022 with a “slight” precipitation surplus might be an exaggeration, with a razor-thin margin involved inch-wise.
Through 365 days of wet periods, dry spells and all kinds of other weather conditions in between, this area wound up with total precipitation of 52.46 inches last year, according to a breakdown from F.G. Doggett Water Plant.
That figure is just 4.1 inches — or 8.5% — above the all-time annual precipitation average for Mount Airy of 48.36 inches.
Weather records have been kept here since 1924, and the water plant is the official observation station for climactic conditions locally.
Last year’s precipitation surplus — albeit slim, minuscule, tiny or whatever — was bolstered by higher-than-usual precipitation during December, which totaled 4.32 inches. The norm in Mount Airy for the 12th month of the year is 3.74 inches.
Fog was observed on eight days during December.
Cold a factor
Measurable amounts of precipitation were noted on 13 days last month at F.G. Doggett Water Plant, with the most for a single day — 0.78 inches — recorded on Dec. 23.
That occurred just before a strong system moved into the area and offered frigid conditions, thus producing another weather highlight for December.
This included the mercury dropping to 2 degrees above zero on Dec. 24, breaking a low-temperature record of 7 which had been set on that date here in 1930.
Overall, the cold snap resulted in an average temperature last month which was nearly 3 degrees cooler than that of all time for December in Mount Airy — 36.8 degrees compared to 39.3.
While the 2-degree reading on Dec. 24 took low-temperature honors for the month, the high for December of 62 degrees was logged on three different days, Dec. 1 and Dec. 30-31.
Frost occurred on 13 days last month.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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