The first three months of 2010 brought abnormally wet conditions to the Mount Airy area, but the super-rainy spring of 2009 probably won’t be repeated this year, according to a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Precipitation here is running 29 percent above normal for the year, based on the latest report from Mount Airy’s F.G. Doggett Water Plant — the city’s official weather-monitoring station. It reflects figures compiled through the end of March.

The 14.02 inches of precipitation received for the first quarter of 2010, bolstered by several major winter storms, dwarfs the 9.35 inches logged through March 31 of last year. That represented an annual total that was 14 percent below normal.

This year got off to a wet start with 6.09 inches in January, which was nearly 80 percent above normal, before dipping to a 2.88-inch output in February — an amount .49 inches below average.

That was despite four days of measurable snowfall and 11 days of precipitation during February. The year’s second month also was characterized by below-normal temperatures (a 33.2-degree average reading for the month compared to the usual 40.2).

The precipitation level rebounded in March with 5.05 inches, which reflected a 3-inch snowfall recorded for March 3. The maximum amount of rain occurring on one day last month was 1.42 inches on March 13. In all, measurable precipitation was noted on 11 of the month’s 31 days.

Mount Airy averages 4.10 inches of precipitation for the third month of the year, and 10.87 inches for the January-through-March period.

Spring Outlook

The dry winter of 2009 turned into a soggy spring last year, but a similar outlook doesn’t look to be in the cards for 2010, based on long-range predictions.

A “normal” pattern of spring rain is expected for Northwest North Carolina, according to Anita Silverman, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Va.

No “strong indication” has been seen among climactic models for the foreseeable future to indicate the area will have an abnormally wet spring rivaling that of last year, Silverman said.

In 2009 in Mount Airy, significant rainfall during the season led to a total that was nearly 30 percent above average by the end of June. That included 8.08 inches in May, the second-highest figure on record for that month since the compiling of weather statistics began here in 1924.

The precipitation average for April in Mount Airy is around 3.76 inches.