People fall in love with Rowan County for many reasons. Some even travel all the way from Mexico to make this beautiful county their home. Being the Chief Forecaster at Rowan County Weather, I am always asked what I love most about the weather in Rowan County. My response is always the same. “We have four distinct seasons in Rowan County. The winter is cold, but not brutal. We see an average of 3-5 inches of snowfall every winter. The spring is usually mild with a blast of summer heat near the end of the season. Summers are hot, but only for a period of the season. The fall is cool and crisp to get you in the mood for the holidays!”
Steve Monday, Chief Forecaster at Rowan County Weather
In this blog post, I wanted to focus on the distinctness between the individual seasons here in Rowan County. Let’s look at the coldest season first, winter.
The image above illustrates a warming trend we have been seeing here in Rowan County with winter temperatures since 1979. Our average temperature during the winter months has warmed up around 6°F over the past 40 years. You may think that means we have received less snow over the past 40 years during the winter, however, the average remains the same of around 3-5 inches of snowfall a year with a few periods of little to no snowfall. As shown in the illustration below.
If you take the past 40 years of winter data for the county, we average 3.9 inches of snowfall a year during the winter months and our average temperature during the Winter is 42.3°F.
Spring is typically a perfect transition season in Rowan County. Springtime temperatures start out a bit cool as the chilly winter air starts to retreat from the area. As we round out the spring season, the average temperatures begin to climb just a bit, but overall the spring season in Rowan County feels great!
As you can see from the illustration above, the average spring temperatures around Rowan County have remained flat with some peaks and valleys along the way. Our average temperatures in the spring stays around 60°F. As we begin to end out the month of May, we start to see high temperatures vary in the 80’s and low 90’s.
As we move past the beginning of spring in Rowan County, the major source of precipitation changes from snow to rain with the warmer temperatures. Over the past 40 years, we have observed a small decline in rainfall during the spring months. Rowan County averages almost 10.75 inches of rainfall during the spring months.
As with any area in the United States, the summer months are the hottest and most brutal. The biggest factor for Rowan County is how many 90°F or more days will you see in a given summer season. More on that shortly.
Overall, our average summer temperatures have remained flat. As you can see from the illustration above, there have been more years with above average temperatures for the summer months than years with below average temperatures. The average summer temperatures in Rowan County are around 77.5°F.
The summer rainfall totals have been slowly increasing over the past 40 years mainly due to hurricanes that have come on shore bringing plumes of rainfall along with them. The average summer rainfall for Rowan County is around 11.25 inches.
Some good news for the county regarding the summer months is the decline of the total number of 90°F or more days we experience. The illustration above shows how that number has mainly dropped over the past 40 years. Rowan County averages 34 days of highs in the 90’s over the summer months. This is about half the number of +90°F days the city of Charlotte sees in the summer months. This is mainly due to the overall rural coverage for Rowan County. We really are the perfect amount of kinda’ country, kinda’ cool!
The fall season in Rowan County gets us back to cooler temperatures and a feel of the holidays approaching in the air. Fall temperatures over the past 40 years have stayed very consistent around Rowan County with the average autumn temperatures being around 61°F.
The amount of rainfall we see in the fall season can be more than the spring and summer months. Mainly due to late season hurricanes that come on shore and bring their remnants through the Rowan area.
Over the past 40 years, there has been an increase in accumulated rainfall around the county. This is when the county typically gets the water needed to remove us from possible drought conditions from the heat of the summer. This can also help us start out the spring season of the following year with a surplus, keeping us ahead of potential drought conditions. The average amount of rainfall for the fall season in Rowan County in the past 40 years is 9.6 inches.
Rowan County is unique due to its close proximity to major metropolitan areas such as Charlotte, Greensboro, and Winston Salem, but continues to have its own feel for weather. While the spring and fall give Rowan County comfortable transitions, we are grateful for all four seasons. The weather we experience gives us the opportunity to get out and enjoy all that Rowan County has to offer and trust me… there’s a lot of original things to experience in Rowan.
