MONTHLY SUMMARY: NOVEMBER 1998 UPDATED: 12/26/98 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...ALTHOUGH SOMEWHAT DRIER AND MILDER THAN NORMAL, NOVEMBER CLOSER TO NORMAL THAN PREVIOUS MONTH... Happy holidays folks! Hope they weren't ruined- but probably some of yours were - by the ice storm. My family get together had to be moved from Waverly (about 7 miles north of Wakefield - AKQ) to Virginia Beach on Christmas Day. 52 hours and going without electricity due to the severe ice storm over Central Virginia. More on that next month! By the way, with 1/10th inch of ice pellets and snow, we technically had a white Christmas morning here in Portsmouth although it was left over from the evening before, falling at the tail-end of a pesky trough with embedded lows along it moving in from the southwest. Posted a picture later for you to see this "white Christmas" here! November continued the drier and milder than normal pattern of October although most of us saw the rainfall deficiency lessen a bit and the excessive average temps declined a bit as well. Scattered stations among us actually reported normal or slightly cooler temperatures! The month started out chilly with the first 9 days or so below normal. Most of the month's remaining days were warmer than colder compared to the norms. Frontal passages during the month were rather weak although fairly strong thunderstorms were noted from Richmond north to the DC area on the 26th in association with a cold frontal passage. Most of our sites had a thunderstorm during the month. A zonal flow continued for much of the month (and into December) with neither an active northern stream nor southern stream and very little phasing of the two. Thus, mostly modified Pacific air covered the East during the period and arctic air masses remained locked-up over Canada. Francis (Weems) reminds me that postage goes up to 33 cents on 1/10/99, so please send the new stamps or 32 cents plus 1 cent stamps next month! Again, some of you missed the "reset" for the snowfall totals for 1998-1999. Yep, we've begun a new season, so don't list last season's snow totals please. NOTES FROM "AROUND THE LEAGUE"- Annandale - Lowell's reports that November was very dry and warm. Total precip was 2.59" below normal, the driest since 1991. The mean temp, meanwhile, was 2.5 degrees in excess of the norm, the highest since 1994. Only two days - both at 29 degrees - were below freezing. This is the least number of November days with freezing temps since 1985 when the lowest temp for November reached only 33! The 1998 minimum temp of 29 were the highest minimum temps since 1988. The average ground temperature at 1 foot was 52.2 which was the highest ever for November (records since '86). This November was the clearest since 1990. The major map feature influencing the local weather- high pressure - was noted on 13 days! Arlington - NWS WBC notes: The average precip here for the period July through November is 17.16"; this year during the same period, only 5.78" has been recorded!!! The drought deepened during the month. For the 3rd time in four months, Washington received less than an inch of rain. The month will rank as the 14th driest dating back to 1871. Almost all of the rainfall came during one of the month's few weak cold frontal passages. Temps averaged out to be normal while the rainfall was 2.19" in deficiency. Bridgewater - Notes from Clayton: "The average temperature for the month was 2.5 degrees above normal and the precipitation was 2.47 inches below normal. Most of the months this year have been above normal in temperatures. The average rainfall for the last five months was 1.32 inches. Excluding August, the average for the other four months was only .90". The average monthly precipitation for the first six months of this year was nearly five inches. The turn around occurred around the first of July. There were several severe forest fires in nearby counties. The lack of rainfall, the low humidities, and the dry winds were contributing factors in these fires. This drought is the most severe since the 1970's. Forecasters indicate very little moisture in the near future." Centreville - Notes from Paul: "With all the rain and lightning on the early morning of November 26th, I thought I'd have to get up and throw an extra set of guy wires on the rain gauge. We made it through the storm however with no damage. Interesting note: the average high and low temps for the month actually occured on a day, the 24th (58 and 36 degrees). 3 days brought winds over 15 mph and 12 days brought breezes over 10 mph. As a result, 80% of my leaves wound-up in the neigbors' yards!!!!!" The average temp was 2 degrees above normal while precip ran 1.71" below normal. Falls Church - Erica notes November 1998 saw fairly average rainfall and temperatures (about +1 degree) in Falls Church. Fredericksburg - Another much drier than normal month, now 5 of them in a row!! Also, the month was still rather warm with 11 days reaching 65 degrees or higher. Only 5.34" total rain the last 5 months whereas 35.47" of rain fell in the 1st 6 months of the year. The dryness has reached a critical stage with severe water restrictions in place here as wells continue to dry-up. Hampton - A dry and mild November reports Dave. No frost in Hampton as of December 9th! "Thank goodness we had excessive rains in the January through March period; otherwise, the situation with the dry fall would be much worse. I did break a record (old 73 degrees) on the 29th and tied a record on the 30th (75 degrees). I do note that there is a pattern here with warm November-December periods followed by snowy/cold January-March periods. Some years with such conditions: a warm Nov-Dec in 1978 was followed by 10.5" of snow Jan-Mar 1979; a warm Nov-Dec in 1979 was followed by 13.5" of snow Jan-Mar 1980; a warm Nov-Dec in 1995 was followed by 21.5" of snow Jan-Mar 1996." Herndon - Russ Topping reports: "The drought continues here. Monthly precipitation was 2.12" below normal. Plenty of blue skies, mild days and crisp cool nights." Newmarket - Joyce says temperatures were just above normal and precip was far below the norm. Norfolk - NWS AKQ reports that monthly rainfall was 1.02" below normal and the monthly mean temp was exactly normal. Portsmouth - No new station records here during November. The mean temp was 1.1 degrees above normal while precip was 54% of normal or -1.55" Remarkably, no temperature 32 degrees or below. Yearly precip totals are some 1.13" above normal (103%). Richmond - NWS AKQ reports the mean temp was 0.1 degree below normal while precip was 1.87" below normal. Mechanicsville - A strong thunderstorm moved through at 1130 hours on the 11th with downpours and sharp lightning. Downpours and wind again on the morning of the 26th. (notes from Glen) Roanoke - Average temperature for November was 48.6 degrees which was 1.2 degrees above the normal average of 47.4 degrees. This was, however, the driest November on record. Rainfall was .64"! The previous driest November was .87" in 1981. Stafford - November finishes 1.6 degrees above average, with an "Indian Summer" at the end of the month; the drought continues, rainy days are few and far between (although there was a welcome storm Thanksgiving morning!); no sign of winter coming anytime soon! - notes from Danny Danny reminds me: "WeatherNet Stafford" has become "CumulusOnline" and is now located at http://www.erols.com/cumulus Washington - Dave noted a warm and very dry pattern continuing during the month. Only 7.91" of rain since July 1st! Woodstock - Driest November in 13 years of record and the third warmest! Also, the driest July-November period in 13 years! (Notes from Lauck) Asheville - The monthly mean temp was 1.7 degrees above normal and rainfall was 0.83" below normal. Brevard - Bob writes: "Is this truly November? The mean high, 59.4 deg. F, was exceeded twice in the past eight Novembers, in 1990, 67.7 deg., and in 1994, 63.3 degrees. The mean low, 41.0 deg., is the highest since my records began in 1990. Only 446 30-day degree heating days were recorded, an index that has ranged in the vicinity of 600 in past Novembers. Rainfall, 3.24" in November, has been dangerously low for some months here in the mountains of western North Carolina, with Asheville and Hendersonville on emergency restricted water use. We in Brevard have an adequate supply, at least for the time being, the population of Brevard being much lower. Our major concern is fire in the surrounding national forests, particularly during the hunting season. Fortunately, no rain means no lightening to start fires. PS - A Very Happy New Year." Charlotte - NWS GSP reports Charlotte was warmer than normal with the average monthly temp some 1.1 degrees above normal. Rainfall was deficient by 0.95 inches. Greensboro - NWS RDU noted that the mean temp was 1.3 degrees above normal and rainfall was 1.42" below normal. Unseasonably cool temperatures were noted at the beginning of the month giving way to pleasantly warm readings by the month's end. The daily high temp was tied on the 29th. For the third month in a row, precip was below normal but the yearly total rainfall still is almost 4" above normal. Henderson - George reports November here was about normal temperature-wise but below normal in the precip category. A friend of his reminds him of a big Norfolk Christmas snowfall in 1943 when he was stationed at Little Creek Amphib Base. (Editor's note: It wasn't as big, but we did have 1/10th inch of snow and ice pellets this year. Just enough to put one in the holiday mood!) Raleigh - NWS RDU reported November had a cool beginning but by mid-month temperatures had climbed into the 70s on 13 of the month's 30 days. A daily maximum temp record was set on the 29th and tied on the 30th. A daily low maximum temp record was set on the 4th. Rainfall was slightly below normal (-0.58"). The monthly mean temp was 0.8 degree in excess of the norm. Raleigh - Bob asks, "Where is fall?" During November, he recorded 13 days with temps reaching 70 degrees or higher! Dry conditions continued with only 1.09" or rainfall since the 3rd of the month. Roxboro - Merriell notes less than half of normal rainfall left November dry and unseasonably warm. Lots of bright sunny days and beautiful autumn scenery. Wilmington - NWS ILM noted that November posted well-below numbers on the rainfall side, 2.14" below normal despite a dozen days having .01" or more. No precip records were tied or broken. The average temp was slightly above normal (0.7 degree) New max temp records were set on the 11th with 83 degrees and on the last day with an 80 degree reading. The first freeze occured on the 8th and was about a week early. The area received 50% of total possible sunshine. 9 days saw dense fog!! Columbia - From NWS CAE: the average temp was 2.7 degrees above normal while rainfall was 1.79" below normal. Greenville-Spartanburg - The month's precip total was 1.26" below normal while the mean temps were 2.5 degrees above normal. (NWS GSP) Ruby - November was generally warm and dry. (from Franklin) Tri-cities - The month's mean temperature was 0.7 degree above normal while precip was 1.50" below normal. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATED MEMBERS' E-MAIL ADDRESSES: (posted by permission) BRE Bob Keehn Bob_Keehn@citcom.net BRI Clayton Towers Ctowers@rica.net POR Bill Trotter wtrotter@whro.org RAL Bob Woodson woods@pipeline.com CEN Paul Bassett III pbassett@digizen.net WSH David Yowell deyowell@mnsinc.com FCH Erica Page ERICA96661@aol.com RMD Roy Britt rbritt@erols.com NEW Joyce Winfree joywood@shentel.net FRB Ken McKneely mckneelys@email.msn.com STF Danny Jessee cumulus@erols.com WOO Lauck Walton jwalton@shentel.net NPN Gary Leonard garleonard@aol.com LKU Joe Bowers jmbiii@mnsinc.com -----------------------------------------------------------------------------