From the NOAA National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), State of the Climate, National Overview, October 2009:
Temperature Highlights – October
- The average October temperature of 50.8°F was 4.0°F below the 20th Century average and ranked as the 3rd coolest based on preliminary data.
- For the nation as a whole, it was the third coolest October on record. The month was marked by an active weather pattern that reinforced unseasonably cold air behind a series of cold fronts. Temperatures were below normal in eight of the nation’s nine climate regions, and of the nine, five were much below normal. Only the Southeast climate region had near normal temperatures for October.
- Statewide temperatures coincided with the regional values as all but six states had below normal temperatures. Oklahoma had its coolest October on record and ten other states had their top five coolest such months.
- Florida was the only state to have an above normal temperature average in October. It was the sixth consecutive month that the Florida’s temperature was above normal, resulting in the third warmest such period (May-October).
- The three-month period (August-October) was the coolest on record for three states: Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Five other states had top five cool periods: Missouri (2nd), Iowa (3rd) , Arkansas (5th) , Illinois (5th) and South Dakota (5th) . Every climate division in Kansas (nine) and Nebraska (eight) recorded a record cool such period.
- For the year-to-date (January – October) period, the contiguous U.S. temperature ranked 43rd warmest. No state had a top or bottom ten temperature value for this period.
Precipitation Highlights – October
- The U.S. recorded its wettest October in the 115-year period of record. The nationwide precipitation of 4.15 inches was nearly double the long-term average of 2.11 inches.
- Regionally, two of the nation’s nine climate regions (the East North Central and South) saw their wettest October. The Central region had its second wettest October, while the West North Central had its fourth wettest. This was the first month since December 2007 that no region had below normal precipitation.
- Three states (Iowa, Arkansas, and Louisiana) saw their record wettest October. Fourteen other states had precipitation readings ranking in their top five category. Only three states (Florida, Utah, and Arizona) saw below normal precipitation.
- Arkansas continued its remarkable run of wetness in 2009. The state has seen four months with top three precipitation ranks this year (May, 1st wettest; July, 3rd wettest; September, 2nd wettest; October, 1st wettest). As a result, the state’s year-to-date average is the wettest in 115 years of record keeping. This contrasted with persistent dryness in Arizona, which saw its second-driest year-to-date period.
- The three-month (August-October) rainfall was record-setting for many adjacent divisions within Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. It is noteworthy that this occurred despite only one tropical cyclone (Claudette, in August) making landfall in the region during this period.
- By the end of October, moderate-to-exceptional drought covered 12 percent of the contiguous United States, the second-smallest drought footprint of the decade, based on the U.S. Drought Monitor. Major drought episodes in California and South Texas improved significantly. Drought conditions emerged across much of Arizona.
- About 45 percent of the contiguous United States had moderately-to-extremely wet conditions at the end of October, according to the Palmer Index (a well-known index that measures both drought intensity and wet spell intensity). This is the largest such footprint since February 2005.
Other Items of Note
- According to the NOAA Midwest Regional Climate Center in Champaign, Illinois, more than half of the long-term stations in the Midwest had one of their five wettest Octobers on record, with one out of five observing its wettest. Combined with the cold, this delayed crop planting and stunted crop maturity. Corn development was as much as four weeks behind in places, and the soybean harvest was well behind schedule throughout the region.
- Two major snow storms hit the contiguous United States during October. The first struck the Upper Midwest October 9th through 13th, while the second blanketed the western Plains States October 27th through 30th. By month’s end, 13.6 percent of the nation was under snow cover, according to NOAA’s National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center.
- Unusually cold and wet conditions across the middle of the country led to several snowfall records. Cheyenne, Wyoming observed 28 inches of snow during October, making this the city’s snowiest October on record. North Platte, Nebraska recorded 30.3 inches of snowfall, making October 2009 the snowiest month of all months on record for the city. The previous record was 27.8 inches, in March 1912.
- October, like September, saw below-normal fire activity in all respects. A total of 3,207 fires burned about 158,000 acres in October, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center. Each of these values is below this decade’s average for October.
- Precipitation Highlights – October
- The U.S. recorded its
wettest October in the 115-year period of record. The nationwide precipitation of 4.15 inches was nearly double the long-term average of 2.11 inches.
Regionally, two of the nation’s nine climate regions (the
East North Central and
South) saw their wettest October. The
Central region had its second wettest October, while the
West North Central had its fourth wettest. This was the first month since December 2007 that no region had below normal precipitation.
- Three states (
Iowa,
Arkansas, and
Louisiana) saw their record wettest October.
Fourteen other states had precipitation readings ranking in their top five category. Only three states (Florida, Utah, and Arizona) saw below normal precipitation.
- Arkansas continued its remarkable run of wetness in 2009. The state has seen four months with top three precipitation ranks this year (May, 1st wettest; July, 3rd wettest; September, 2nd wettest; October, 1st wettest). As a result, the state’s
year-to-date average is the wettest in 115 years of record keeping. This contrasted with persistent dryness in
Arizona, which saw its second-driest year-to-date period.
- The three-month (August-October) rainfall was record-setting for many
adjacent divisions within Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. It is noteworthy that this occurred despite only one tropical cyclone (Claudette, in August) making landfall in the region during this period.
- By the end of October, moderate-to-exceptional drought covered 12 percent of the contiguous United States, the second-smallest drought footprint of the decade, based on the U.S. Drought Monitor. Major drought episodes in California and South Texas improved significantly. Drought conditions emerged across much of Arizona.
- About 45 percent of the contiguous United States had moderately-to-extremely wet conditions at the end of October, according to the Palmer Index (a well-known index that measures both drought intensity and wet spell intensity). This is the largest such footprint since February 2005.
- Other Items of Note
- According to the NOAA Midwest Regional Climate Center in Champaign, Illinois, more than half of the long-term stations in the Midwest had one of their five wettest Octobers on record, with one out of five observing its wettest. Combined with the cold, this delayed crop planting and stunted crop maturity. Corn development was as much as four weeks behind in places, and the soybean harvest was well behind schedule throughout the region.
- Two major snow storms hit the contiguous United States during October. The first struck the Upper Midwest October 9th through 13th, while the second blanketed the western Plains States October 27th through 30th. By month’s end, 13.6 percent of the nation was under snow cover, according to NOAA’s National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center.
- Unusually cold and wet conditions across the middle of the country led to several snowfall records. Cheyenne, Wyoming observed 28 inches of snow during October, making this the city’s snowiest October on record. North Platte, Nebraska recorded 30.3 inches of snowfall, making October 2009 the snowiest month of all months on record for the city. The previous record was 27.8 inches, in March 1912.
- October, like September, saw below-normal fire activity in all respects. A total of 3,207 fires burned about 158,000 acres in October, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center. Each of these values is below this decade’s average for October.
Please excuse the OT, but (news),
on BBC Radio 4 ~an hour ago was Dr. Ian Plimer. Now there’s a turnup for the books! Only gave him a short interview, though.
Thanks for posting this publication, I haven’t visited the NCDC web site for a long time. The increase in precipitation is remarkable.
These are interesting times.
According to AccuWeather, a new cold wave and snow is underway for this weekend:
http://www.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=rss&article=6
Sorry OT (long) – BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme (their top slot morning, serious news affair) just had Ian Plimer on… I nearly crashed the car.
So, I’ve sent the following email to the programme – you never know it may do some good:
“Dear Sir/Madam,
Re: Ian Plimer’s appearance on the Today programme (12 Nov 2009).
Firstly, how refreshing for a BBC broadcast to feature a sceptic in the field of climate change.
Now that the Today programme has “started the debate” (to paraphrase from the piece) it would be rather excellent for you to carry this on.
Might I recommend an interview with Steve McIntyre – a prominent statistician (and IPCC reviewer) who has, amongst other things, debunked the myth of the “hockey-stick” more than once. He has recently appeared on Finnish TV and his voice should be heard in as wide a context as possible – he really does understand the maths behind the claims of ‘doom-n-gloom’ and more often than not finds it badly wanting.
His struggles in obtaining the data used as the basis for “proving” that we live in unprecedented times should have been the subject of a broadcast by a major media organisation. He has frequently been stonewalled, denied access and generally obstructed for years in his attempts to get access to data that should be (by definition) open to anyone who wishes to examine it. Oddly, when he finally obtains the data it is found to be badly flawed and used in questionable statistical techniques. Keep in mind that this data is the foundation upon which we may well all be taxed under new “carbon” regimes. If a similar level of [a] obstruction and [b] bad methods had been found in any other field the main-stream-media would have been all over the story; not so for climate change – you must ask yourselves if this reflects the true spirit of investigative, hard-hitting journalism?
This quote from leading CRU climate scientist Dr Phil Jones (2004) says it all really: “I will still not pass on the data. We have 25 or so years invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it.” – Newton et al would be spinning in their graves at this point.
I think if your researchers are brave enough to dig a little deeper and wider in their search for information on climate change they will find that the “consensus” doesn’t exist and that the science is far from settled.
May I recommend two sites: http://www.climateaudit.org (Steve McIntyre’s site) and http://www.wattsupwiththat.com (run by Anthony Watts). The former is somewhat heavy on the technical details; the latter is more accessible and contains many links and guest postings by prominent scientists that challenge the current consensus view.
As a final note do you really, really, think that if we were all doomed (“50 days to save the planet” to paraphrase Mr Brown) that there would be a generally accepted view that Copenhagen-09 isn’t going to do much for emissions targets?
Best regards
Mark Fawcett”
Cheers
Mark.
“Departure from the 1971 – 2000 Normal”
Come 2011 will it be Departure from the 1981 – 2010 Normal? As the naughties (2000’s) will be seen as “Will be the Warmest on Record”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/10/countdown-to-an-unprecedented-warm-decade-2-months-to-go/
What difference would this make to the map
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/asos-oct2009-nocities.gif
Also I note the warmer areas are coastal.
UAH, Second coldest USA October.
2002 -1.48
2009 -1.45
None of the others came close.
janama (00:12:40) : Sure – you are having colder starts to winter and we are having a warmer start to summer down in the southern hemi.
It’s called climate change – as it does.
Not where I am. The whole of NZ is cooler than normal.
http://www.metservice.co.nz/public/weatherToday/temperatures.html
Shaun (01:08:45) : “Just watched a national broadcast current events programme here in Oz. There’s been a five day heatwave in Adelaide. Is it weather? No- it is “in accordance with the climate change forecasts of the IPCC.” A national scientific figure was on the radio this morning claiming that “events which the IPCC forecast to happen in 100 years time, we’re seeing NOW.” “
The IPCC was one hundred years out in their predictions? Sheesh, just who can you trust these days…
Chris Schoneveld (01:10:29) : “To put irony in one’s writing may be not my strongest point…
The irony was there, Chris. Would not take the response as meaning anything more than unlucky timing on your part.
Once upon a time, Weather was the pieces that made up Climate.
These days, however, Weather is not to be confused with Climate, which has
become politically correct, modelized and turned into a weapon of mass delusion.
Fortunately for us, we have Meteorologists who defend the Weather.
And one of these days, the Meteorologists will free the Climate from the clutches of the politically correct modelers who beat us all day long with forecasts of Faster than Previously Imagined through Doomsday.
A battle was won here, the Weather having turned in favor of the Meteorologists, who have the PC Imaginaries on the run.
Just curious. Could someone give us a snapshot of the UK’s autumn? How has it been?
After a cooler-than-normal October, the Midwest seems to be experiencing a fairly normal November.
I really dislike the way these maps are coloured. There is no colour for “normal”… it’s either over, or under. So I imagine in the great scope of things, if a region has exactly 0 degrees deviation from “normal” temperature, it’s coloured “pink” which visually puts it on the “warm” side.
Minnesota. Unbelievably miserable October which is usually my favorite month. Unusually pleasant November so far. Come Dec 12 compare the headlines to the crickets today.
It would be interesting to hear what large scale patterns caused both Western Europe and North America to have such a cold, wet October. However, it does appear that El Nino is strengthening. This might give North America a nice, mild Winter for 2009/2010. However, it could portend for a very stormy Winter for the West Coast.
Ice expands upward. As the ice melts it creates energy by releasing it’s salt. The salt ions create kinetic energy in the ocean waters; which causes the warm vapors to rise. Which also creates expansion in the atmosphere and this rising heat has caused the atmosphere lining to bust open.
Just like the old fashioned jiffy pop popcorn, which had the aluminum foil, and upon pressure would rise until it tore open from the internal combustion of condensed heat.
It is the same thing with melting ice causing salt ions to create ocean kenetic energy. Heat rises.
So the oceans need to be diluted from the salt content, which would reduce the ion energy of the salts, which are causing global warming.
Meanwhile, over in Beijing, the heaviest snow in 54 years…
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ad0dn1Nzvk8g&pos=9
Well, it’s “warm” on the East coast of Aus, Sydney, certainy not unusual, but humid, 85%+.
Predictions are for 42c next Monday. We’ll see. Seems like a “usual” spring/summer change going on, but a cool flow is, predcited, coming the week after.
Salt destroys ice. Salt prevents water from freezing.
When the human body has too much salt, it swells, and pressure increases.
Salt is heavier than water, ice is lighter than water. So salt could be removed from the sea, since it is heavier than water. Just filter out the salt from the water and create salt mountains. Then as the sea waters decrease in temp., the water will freeze from below the sea floor, causing the icebergs with expand upward again.
Use the salt mountains as resource heat.
Re: JP (05:08:51) :
It would be interesting to hear what large scale patterns caused both Western Europe and North America to have such a cold, wet October.
Excuse me – October was in Europe only a bit cool in the very far north of Scandinavia and a limited part of Russia. It was normal to mild over all of Western Europe and flabbergastingly warm/record ‘hot’ over central and Southeastern Europe.
My last comment contains a bad mistake based on the faulty record of Zell am See. In fact October was mild, but not exceptionally so, over all of central and Southeastern Europe.
The cold spell in the Alps middle of the month didn’t compensate for the rest (including e.g. the German absolute October heat record on the 7th).
JP (05:08:51) :
It would be interesting to hear what large scale patterns caused both Western Europe and North America to have such a cold, wet October. However, it does appear that El Nino is strengthening. This might give North America a nice, mild Winter for 2009/2010. However, it could portend for a very stormy Winter for the West Coast.
A “nice mild winter” is just what many of the Northern states, (with their dependence on a snow economy) do not need at this point in the recession.
Yaakoba (05:13:05)
Ice already expels most of its salt when it freezes, so surface ice is usually unsalty. The water beaneath it is denser, and unfrozen so has its salt worth, so sinks whilst, warmer water, or less salty water rises/circulates to replace it. As more ice forms, more salt is expelled.
Its all good,, as you can melt frozen sea water for drinking purposes
crosspatch (00:21:20) :
A nice website to bookmark to keep track of the “larger picture” is here:
http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/climate/synop.html
Use the pull-down menu to select “Temperature Anomaly.” The data is updated weekly. Since you asked about Canada, here is what it looked like for the second week of October:
http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/climate/synop/td20091014_e.png
Nearer the end of the month, Canada looking a bit warmer (anomaly-wise) than CONUS:
http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/climate/synop/td20091028_e.png
November has been warmer all over most of North America:
http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/climate/synop/td20091111_e.png
Seriously, this is a great website for keeping track of climate/weather from a global perspective. And the anomalies are standard climatology, i.e. relative to 1971-2000, not the older baseline of GISS.
We’ve had a very wet cold and windy autumn/ so far. Its normally a fairly settled period. An interesting fact though: In London on 10th Nov, water vapour was very high, temperature very low -the following night water vapour lower and temperature higher (negative feedback?) we’ve had some unusual cold/warm anomalies so far but reckon on a mild winter of ElNino. It could be cold though. There’s no way of telling
Shaun (01:08:45) :
Just watched a national broadcast current events programme here in Oz. There’s been a five day heatwave in Adelaide. Is it weather? No- it is “in accordance with the climate change forecasts of the IPCC.” A national scientific figure was on the radio this morning claiming that “events which the IPCC forecast to happen in 100 years time, we’re seeing NOW.” Can someone help me tear my hair out?
By now it really doesn’t come as a surprise that only in Climate Science can proof that you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about also prove that your credibility has been enhanced. And they’re not even on “meth”.
I prefer warm to cold. I looked at the significance of global temperature trends from GISS HadCRUT, UAH and RSS recently and found no significant warming for 15 years.
http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/no-warming-for-fifteen-years/
Tamino and RC use the argument that the downward trend doesn’t exist but it applies both ways. I just used their approach and found it’s been a long time since we’ve seen what they call ‘real’ warming.