State of The Climate - October 2011

The new State of the Climate report is out for October and it looks like the average temperatures nationwide ran about 0.9 degrees above normal. Here are a few highlights:

• The average U.S. temperature in October was 55.7 degrees F, 0.9 degrees F above the 1901-2000 long term average. Precipitation, averaged across the nation, was 2.04 inches. This was 0.07 inch below the long-term average, with variability between regions. This monthly analysis is based on records dating back to 1895.
• (My comment: If you remember a few post ago, Robert Gamble predicted this as an "epic storm") An early season storm brought heavy snow accumulations to the northeastern United States on October 29th–31st. Several locations broke October snow storm records, including New York City’s Central Park, where 2.9 inches of snow accumulated. The highest snowfall amounts were further inland, with over 30 inches accumulating in western Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. The heavy, wet snow falling on the autumn foliage, combined with strong winds, caused havoc across the region and over 3 million people lost power. The storm received a preliminary rank of Category 1 on the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS), which takes into account snowfall accumulation in populated areas, the only ranking storm on record to occur during October.
• As of November 1st, about nine percent of the contiguous United States remained in the worst category of drought, called D4 or exceptional drought. The footprint was smaller than the nearly 12 percent of the country experiencing exceptional drought at the beginning of October. Slight improvement of drought conditions occurred across the Southern Plains during October, where near-normal precipitation was observed. The drought stricken areas of the Southern Plains would need at least 18 inches of rain in a single month to end the on-going drought.

You can read the complete report here on DaculaWeather.com.

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