What Month is This?

It seems October and November made a switch this year.  What an amazing shift in weather!  The month of October, with its 12.49" precip total, under average temperatures, and even some snow to the upper midwest, gave way to the most pleasant beginning to November I can remember.  The past 9 days have simply been a delight.  We have enjoyed dry weather, sunny skies, and above-average temps every day so far.

We have gone 11 days now without any measurable precipitation, which is the first time since February 25th of this year.  With a 40% chance of showers today, we might be able to extend this dry spell even longer. 

I don't mind, as long as it gets cold and nasty by the time deer season rolls around.

An October To Remember

--- Updated 11/4 ---

This summer was quiet in the world of weather blogs.  We have more than made up for it this month, though.  October 2009 brought with it record cold and wet weather.  We saw a couple mornings with frost early on, but for the most part, the temperature stayed above freezing overnight.  Here are some notable stats on the month:

• We experienced 21 days with at least a trace of precip
• Average Temperature:  50.8° *4th coldest October*
• Total Precip:  12.49" *New Record for Fulton*
• Fun Fact:
• Every Thursday was wet
• Every Saturday was dry <-- Correlation?
  

Click HERE for MO-CW-1 Daily Observations

Temperatures

We only exceeded the average high temperature 5 times this month.

Highest Temp:  75° on Oct. 20

Lowest Temp:  30° on Oct. 18

Mean High (average):  59.3° (68.0°)  |  -8.7

Mean Low (average):  42.4° (44.1°)  |  +1.7

Mean Temp (average):  50.8° (56.0°)  |  +5.2

Days Above Average High:  5

Days Below Average High:  26



Precipitation


Days with measurable precipitation:  18

Days with thunder:  5

Our yearly total so far.  The average yearly precipitation total for Fulton is 41.22"

Looking at a comparison of the past three Octobers gives you an idea of the huge month this has been.

Monthly Average:  3.25"

Finally, a data disaggregation of our precip this month:

Looking Ahead to November

Looking at the CPC models, a drier and warmer start to November seems to be the hand dealt to us.  I am glad for the break.  I'd like to take some time analyzing the past month some more.  I'm sure I'll want to know more about what happened a few years from now.

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Weather Station Now Online!!

I am very excited this morning.  Our wonderful tech guy here at school has hooked up our new WMR-968 online.  I'm still playing with much of the formatting and such, but it will start shaping up soon.

The outside temp sensor and anemometer are still in my room (haven't had a chance to get them in an appropriate place outside yet), but they will be up soon.

The official school weather site is HERE.

For more detailed data and weather history for the station, click HERE.

October Update

After recording the coldest start to October, we had a snippet of what we've been missing over the past few days. This week has given us sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s. We've been trying to get in all the outside time we can before these days are long gone.


The National Weather Service STL has updated their records through October 19, and Columbia is still recording the coldest average temperature, while St. Louis is recording the 2nd coldest. View their data here.

After recording 0.05" this morning, our October total tipped the 8" mark. We are currently above the yearly average by 5.89" with 2.5 months to go.

NOAA's Winter Outlook

Everyone's wondering what this winter will bring with El Nino in affect. NOAA has just recently published an article outlining what they believe this winter will look like. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out!

View the article here.

Source: NOAA


Source: NOAA

Chilly and Wet Start to October

We are still two weeks away from Halloween, but the weather feels more like Thanksgiving. Our average high temperature this past week has been 52°, which is the normal high for November 19. Cloudy, drizzly, rainy. That's pretty much how you can describe October so far this year.

Some stats:

October 1 - 14

• Mean Temperature (normal): 50.04° (59.43°)
• Total Rainfall (monthly norm): 7.88" (3.25")
• Days meeting/exceeding average high temp: 0

From the NWS STL website, these are the top ten coldest periods from October 1-14 in Columbia, MO:

  Value   Year
1    50.2   2009
2    51.0   1987
3    51.3   1988
4    51.8   1977
5    52.1   1917
6    54.3   1935
7    54.5   1964
8    54.7   1921,1952
10   55.0   1908

Finally, check out this month's temperature graph so far.

Storm Rain Total

Fulton Station, MO-CW-1: 5.72"

Auxvasse Station, MO-CW-5: 5.83"

**For a complete 3-day loop of this storm, visit OSNW3's blog entry October 11 Scroll to the bottom for radar loop**

Thursday, October 8

Friday, October 9