Geography and Climate
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 18.0 square miles (47 km2), of which, 15.9 square miles (41 km2) of it is land and 2.1 square miles (5.4 km2) of it (11.51%) is water. The Guyandotte River joins the Ohio River about 5 miles (8.0 km) east of downtown Huntington. Huntington fills the roughly three-mile wide flood plain of the south bank of the Ohio River for sixty city blocks and portions of the hills to the immediate south and southeast.
Due to its position in the westernmost and lowest altitude areas of the state, the city is on the northern limits of a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), unlike the hilly uplands of West Virginia which are located in the Allegheny Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. Huntington is made humid by the Ohio River, but summers are not as hot as they are further south and west. Snowfall generally falls in moderate amounts, accumulating an average 23 inches (58 cm) seasonally, and the greatest 24-hour fall was 21.1 inches (54 cm) during the March 1993 Storm of the Century. On average, there are 24 days that reach 90 °F (32.2 °C) and 16–17 days annually that stay below freezing. The highest recorded temperature was 108 °F (42 °C) on July 28, 1930, and the lowest was −24 °F (−31 °C) on February 9, 1899.
| Climate data for Huntington, West Virginia (1981–2010 normals) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 79 (26) |
80 (27) |
92 (33) |
92 (33) |
97 (36) |
105 (41) |
108 (42) |
107 (42) |
103 (39) |
93 (34) |
86 (30) |
80 (27) |
108 (42) |
| Average high °F (°C) | 42.2 (5.7) |
46.6 (8.1) |
56.5 (13.6) |
67.9 (19.9) |
75.3 (24.1) |
82.9 (28.3) |
86.0 (30.0) |
85.4 (29.7) |
78.8 (26.0) |
68.1 (20.1) |
56.8 (13.8) |
45.4 (7.4) |
66.0 (18.9) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 25.6 (−3.6) |
28.3 (−2.1) |
35.6 (2.0) |
44.8 (7.1) |
52.9 (11.6) |
61.7 (16.5) |
65.7 (18.7) |
64.4 (18.0) |
56.7 (13.7) |
45.3 (7.4) |
37.1 (2.8) |
28.9 (−1.7) |
45.6 (7.6) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −21 (−29) |
−24 (−31) |
−2 (−19) |
15 (−9) |
27 (−3) |
39 (4) |
46 (8) |
43 (6) |
29 (−2) |
16 (−9) |
4 (−16) |
−14 (−26) |
−24 (−31) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 2.97 (75.4) |
3.06 (77.7) |
3.90 (99.1) |
3.44 (87.4) |
4.70 (119.4) |
3.88 (98.6) |
4.55 (115.6) |
3.74 (95) |
2.79 (70.9) |
2.81 (71.4) |
3.44 (87.4) |
3.30 (83.8) |
42.58 (1,081.5) |
| Snowfall inches (cm) | 7.2 (18.3) |
6.9 (17.5) |
3.7 (9.4) |
.9 (2.3) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
.1 (0.3) |
.7 (1.8) |
3.7 (9.4) |
23.2 (58.9) |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.01 inch) | 13.4 | 11.9 | 13.3 | 12.8 | 13.8 | 12.1 | 11.1 | 9.5 | 8.1 | 9.3 | 10.8 | 12.9 | 139.1 |
| Avg. snowy days (≥ 0.1 inch) | 6.0 | 4.4 | 2.4 | .7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .9 | 4.1 | 18.5 |
| Source: NOAA | |||||||||||||
Read more about this topic: Huntington, West Virginia
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