Climate
Bath and Highland Counties offer residents full enjoyment of the four seasons. Located at high elevations in Virginia's Allegheny Mountains, summers here are cool and mild with midday temperatures rarely climbing above 80 degrees and summer nights with cool, throw-the-windows-open breezes.
With hardwood forests that are home to sugar maples, oaks, hickories, dogwoods, and poplars, fall color in the Alleghenies rivals that of New England. And winter brings lovely mountain snowfalls, turning the ridgelines a smoky blue and blanketing the rolling landscape with quiet.
Highland, in particular, has a climate similar to that of Canada, making it one of the southernmost points for maple syrup making and also providing habitat for many northern bird species, including a variety of warblers.
In spring, the Alleghany Highlands are alive with color, as the woods grow rich with the white, pink, and lavender flowers of rhododendron and mountain laurel and the striking oranges of flame azalea. Wildflowers, ranging from trillium to rare orchids, carpet the forest floors and populate the mountain meadows.
Bath County climate:
- Average summer temperature: 69°F
- Average winter temperature: 32°F
- Average annual snowfall: 30 inches
- Average annual rainfall: 42 inches
Highland County climate:
- Average summer temperature: 68°
- Average winter temperature: 28°
- Average annual snowfall: 37 inches
- Average annual rainfall: 39 inches