Dogwood Festival Kicks off Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day weekend is here, and Mother Nature will deliver a gift to us with a fairly nice Sunday under a mix of sun and clouds with high temperatures in the mid 60s. There is a slight chance of a scattered shower but most, if not all, of the day will be dry. Unfortunately, a shower or two can be expected late tonight, and tomorrow will be mostly cloudy with scattered showers, but there won't be any heavy, day-long rain.

That's certainly good news, considering two of the last three weekends featured well over an inch of rain. However, since the start of the year, our weekend weather has been pretty good. In fact, only six of the 18 weekends (33%) thus far this year have had any measured rain. Even better, just two of the last eight weekends have been wet, dating back to the first weekend of March.
Here's a look at our weekend weather this year

• January: 2 wet weekends, 3 dry weekends; total weekend rain 0.06"
• February: 1 wet weekend, 3 dry weekends; total weekend rain 0.05"
• March: 1 wet weekend, 3 dry weekends; total weekend rain 1.26"
• April: 2 wet weekends, 3 dry weekends; total weekend rain 2.82"
• Yearly total: 6 wet weekends, 12 dry weekends; total weekend rain 4.19"

The Mother's Day weekend gets off to an early start today as the 76th annual Dogwood Festival begins high atop Greenfield Hill in Fairfield. The event, which is traditionally held on Mother's Day weekend, draws people from all over the Northeast. From its humble beginnings on a card table that displayed handmade aprons and similar items three-quarters of a century ago, the Festival has grown into an event which attracts thousands each year.


Every year, the festival offers an opportunity for all to share the beauty of the historic hill. I've been at Greenfield Hill to provide LIVE weather reports a number of times to promote the Dogwood Festival, and it seems that rain has always been in the forecast just about every year. This year, Mother Nature is promising some showers Saturday, but we'll enjoy a nice finish to the Mother's Day weekend.

Happy Mother's Day!

Paul