See also: Virginia caught between Canadian smoke and African dust
There were much bigger concerns than the thermometer in summer 1941, the last summer before U.S. entry into World War II.
The summer itself was not remarkable for its temperatures in what is today the Southwest and Southside Virginia coverage area of Cardinal News, quite average in fact. But, interestingly, there were unusual surges of extreme heat on either side of summer, in late May and early October, the only time a similar arrangement of temperatures has occurred in more than a century of regional weather records.
A week ago it was mentioned here that a cool, damp “wedge” of air had become trapped against the Appalachians on the prior day, Tuesday, May 27. This resulted in unusually clammy late May weather for our region.
High temperatures for Tuesday, May 27, were the coolest on record for that date at Danville, 58 degrees, and Blacksburg, 51 degrees, while ranking second coolest for May 27 at Roanoke, 56 degrees, and Lynchburg, 59 degrees, beat out by slightly cooler May 27 highs of 54 and 56, respectively, in 1961.
· Remember to enter the Cardinal Weather summer heat prediction contest – details in last week’s weather column linked here.
Perusing the record book reveals quite an opposite and more prolonged temperature regime in late May 1941.
Danville reached the triple-digit mark four times in May 1941, peaking at 101 on May 22, 1941, but also hitting 100 on May 23, 28 and 29. Martinsville also reached 101 on May 22 then again on May 28, while Lynchburg reached 100 on May 22.
In each of those cases, it is the only time in recorded weather history, dating back to 1892 at Lynchburg, 1917 at Danville and 1937 at Martinsville, that the triple-digit mark has been breached at those locations in May.
Lynchburg has not reached even 95 on any May day in any year since 1941.
Roanoke almost hit 100 on May 22, 1941, topping out at 99, part of a 97-99-97 run over three days that was almost matched by a 95-98-97 run a few days later on May 27-29.
While higher elevation areas to the west and southwest in our region couldn’t match the eye-popping numbers of the Roanoke Valley and lower elevations east of the Blue Ridge, the peak high of 93 in 1941 remains Blacksburg’s hottest May temperature to date, and 91 at Wytheville wasn’t matched again for May heat until 2011.
Lexington hit 97 degrees for its hottest temperature during the May 1941 heat wave –- another reminder that Lexington, weather data going back to 1890, has been lacking a cooperative weather observer since last summer, so its records have several months gap in them now. (Contact the National Weather Service office in Blacksburg at 540-553-8900 if you live at Lexington and have any interest in filling this data gap and being the next cooperative weather observer there.)
I wrote about the May 1941 heat in my old Weather Journal column in The Roanoke Times when we had a few not-quite-as-hot days in May 2022. For those lacking paywall access or who otherwise get a bounce-back if you click on that link, one interesting historical note gleaned from newspapers of the period was Mayor E.W Calfee calling on Pulaski residents to “help conserve the municipal water supply by stopping all sprinkling and use of hose for washing floors and walks.” Calfee of course is the namesake of the baseball field where the Pulaski River Turtles of the Appalachian League play.
The weird thing about 1941 was that our region experienced upper 90s and near-100 temperatures in late May and then again in early October, with only a couple of brief spikes of mid to upper 90s in between. The average summer temperature in 1941 was pretty much right in the middle, historically, at several locations across Cardinal News’ coverage area.
On October 6, 1941, Danville again hit 100 degrees, its sixth day to do in 1941 with only one of those days — June 29 — landing in actual summer. (That June 29 was not nearly as hot elsewhere in our region, 93 at Roanoke and 94 at Lynchburg, for instance).
Martinsville also reached 100 on Oct. 6, 1941, and Roanoke and Lynchburg topped out at 98 and 97, respectively, amid a three-day run of belated summer heat.
The October heat burst in 1941 came back to light in 2019, when our region experienced a similar spike of October heat in the month’s first three days. Roanoke matched the 1941 hottest October temperature of 98 on Oct. 3. Danville and Lynchburg came up just short of the October 1941 heat at 98 and 97, respectively. South Boston, which doesn’t have official data for 1941, did reach 100 and 102 on consecutive days in October six years ago, as did the John H. Kerr Dam in Mecklenburg County.
The temperature scene is much different in 2025 than it was in 1941. Other than the John H. Kerr Dam recording 91 degrees on the first day of May, all of the above-mentioned locations in this article have yet to reach 90 degrees for the first time this year, let alone challenge 100.
There may be some chance of some locations in our region clipping 90 in the remainder of this week, but as of yet, there is no indication of a run of extreme heat in the ballpark of May or October 1941.
Journalist Kevin Myatt has been writing about weather for 20 years. His weekly column, appearing on Wednesdays, is sponsored by Oakey’s, a family-run, locally-owned funeral home with locations throughout the Roanoke Valley. Sign up for his weekly newsletter:
