MONTHLY SUMMARY: OCTOBER 1998 UPDATED: 11/29/98 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...DRY, MILD FALL WEATHER CONTINUES... I hope each of you had a nice Thanksgiving and are gearing up for winter and the holidays. Think Merriell A. Jay best summarizes October weather, not only for Roxboro, NC, but also for the VA/NC/SC region: "Mostly sunny, blue skies and bright autumn colors painted October as a beautiful but dry month. Temps averaged above normal while precip was below normal." After a few troughs built over the East and helped cool temps closer to the norms for October, a zonal flow has developed and we now are deep into a pattern which takes low pressures- some quite strong - coming in from the Pacific northwest and from the central Pacific coast across the northern US tier and into Eastern Canada on many occasions. While the lows, in general, have produced cold fronts which have swung through our area, high pressure sources continue to be out of the west and southwest. Moisture has pretty much been shut down and those of you who have experienced incredibly low rainfall into early fall find yourselves plunging deeper into a deficiency. As might be expected, widespread forest fires have developed across western and northern Virginia and Western North Carolina. Unfortunately, the long term winter forecast calls for a 65% likelihood that December through February will bring above normal temps and continued drier than normal conditions. Time to get those E-Saver flier tickets for weekend jaunts to lower Canada! Montreal is just beautiful if you're seeking chilly temps and snow. Have included some reprints for your consideration. Made corrections on Henderson, NC's precip for September 1998 which was not printed correctly. See corrections under Henderson below. Sorry 'bout that George! 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. Erica has a new e-mail address as does Danny Jessee, Both are updated at the end of the notes section. NOTES FROM "AROUND THE LEAGUE"- Annandale - Lowell's headline is "record drought for October and above normal temps for the month." Average daily minimum temps were 2.75 degrees above normal while average maxes were 1.24 degrees above normal. The lowest minimum temp was 38 degrees and was the highest minimum for October since 1984 when 41 degrees was recorded. Lowell's site saw the driest October on record with a -2.43" departure. The previous record departure was 1.55" in 1994. Only 5 days in October had measurable rainfall, also the least since 1994. Most of the month's rainfall came on 1 day, the 8th. Arlington - NWS WBC notes: OCTOBER 1998 DEEPENED THE REGION'S DROUGHT. WASHINGTON RECEIVED LESS THAN AN INCH OF RAIN FOR THE SECOND TIME IN THREE MONTHS. IT WILL RANK AS THE NINTH DRIEST OCTOBER IN THE HISTORICAL RECORD OF WASHINGTON...WHICH DATES BACK TO 1871. IT HAS BEEN THE SECOND DRIEST OCTOBER IN 65 YEARS...THE DRIEST WAS IN 1963 WHEN JUST A TRACE WAS RECORDED. OCTOBER'S TEMPERATURE AVERAGED OUT TO BE NEAR NORMAL THIS YEAR. DAYS WERE MAINLY IN THE MIDDLE 60S TO MIDDLE 70S...NIGHT TIME LOWS WERE USUALLY IN THE MIDDLE 40S TO MIDDLE 50S. FOR RAINFALL...THIS MONTH HAD ONE DAY WITH WIDESPREAD RAIN. THAT WAS ON THE 8TH WHEN A WEAK COLD FRONT SLID THROUGH THE REGION. THAT FRONT WAS JUST ENOUGH TO BRING A HALF INCH OF RAIN FOR THE AREA. THE OTHER FOUR DAYS WITH MEASURABLE RAIN HAD JUST ONE HUNDREDTH OF AN INCH OF RAIN APIECE. Blacksburg - The monthly average temp was 2.1 degrees above normal. Precip totals were 0.51" below normal. Bridgewater - Notes from Clayton: "There were no thunderstorms during the month. At the end of June, there were 24 for the year. Since then there have been only 4. In spite of the dry weather, precipitation is about 2.25 inches above normal. At the end of June, precipitation was around 11 inches above normal. The average rainfall for the first seven months of the year is 4.75 inches. For the last four months, the average is down to 1.50 inches. Since the first of July, only 5.99 inches of rain has fallen. The first killing frost and hard freeze occurred on the 23rd. Five mornings with frost were recorded." Centreville - Paul noted only 43% of the normal precip for October producing another "ho-hum" month. His observance that trees seem to be a week to ten days behind max leaf drop support a lot of "views" that winter seems to be running about one-month behind. Falls Church - October 1998 was an average month temperature-wise but with way-below average precipitation. (report from Erica) Fredericksburg - Ken reports that temps finally cooled somewhat from warm summer readings, though 18 days saw 70 degrees or higher. Once again, rainfall was much below normal, less than 1" and 90% of that fell on one day. Yet, some beautiful fall days! Hampton - Dry and pleasant conditions with rainfall below normal with most occurring at the beginning of the month. Outstanding stretch of days with dry conditions, low dewpoints, and clear blue skies! Herndon - Russ Topping notes: "Yet another dry month. Only 1 decent day of rain. The latter part of this year is shaping up to be one of our driest ever." Louisa - John sends greetings to his long-time friends Marie Perkins Bowers and her husband Joe. John notes that before Joe was appointed to operate the offical coooperative station in Louisa, he applied for the job when his employee L. M. Sims retired. He said that the NWS established his location to be "too freakish." (If you recall from last month, Joe Bowers joined our ACON group.) Lynchburg - The mean temps were just below normal at -0.3 degree. Precip total was 2.20" below normal. Newmarket - Joyce says it is still very dry there but temps are close to normal. Newport News - "Dry, dry, dry." A very boring month weather-wise. Did tie the record high of 90 degrees on the 1st. (notes from Gary) Norfolk - NWS AKQ reports that monthly rainfall was 1.41" below normal and the monthly mean temp was 0.7 degrees in excess of normal. Portsmouth - As at every other reporting station listed in these notes, the month was drier and warmer than normal. Temps were 1.6 degrees above normal while precip was only 65% of the norm. The dry weather reduced the excessive yearly rainfall totals to 107%. No station records were tied or broken during the month. Richmond - Veteran "storm chaser" Roy Britt reports the month was very dry with only 0.54" at his station. This is the least amount or rain since August 1997. That month only saw 0.32" rain. Richmond - NWS AKQ reports the mean temp was 0.9 degree above normal while precip was 3.06" below normal. Mechanicsville - Glenn notes, other than a very dry month there was nothing much to report about! Roanoke - Wendell says October was warm and dry. Temps were 2.7 degrees above the normal while rainfall was 2.26" below normal. His driest month on record is October and that occurred in 1991 when a scant 0.04" fell right on the heels of the driest September with only 0.48". Roanoke - NWS Blacksburg reports temp averages were 2.5 degrees above normal while precip was 2.38" below normal at the Roanoke Airport. Stafford - A very dry month...only 1 day with measurable precipitation! Danny reminds me: "WeatherNet Stafford" has become "CumulusOnline" and is now located at http://www.erols.com/cumulus His new e-mail is cumulus@erols.com Woodstock - Temperatures were slightly above average. The month was the 4th driest in 13 years but not unusual for October. The driest July - October period here in 1998 beating 1986 at 7.25" and 1991 at 7.99". Asheville - The monthly mean temp was 2.4 degrees above normal and rainfall was 1.80" below normal. Brevard - October 1998 was an "average" month. The mean high temperature of 71.0 deg. F and the mean low of 41.8 deg. F were each exceeded twice during the past eight years. Thirty day heating and cooling, 336 and 1 degree days respectively, were typical for October as was rainfall of 5.75". October rainfall has varied from a low of 0.48" in 1991 to a high of 12.30" in 1995. Charlotte - NWS GSP reports Charlotte was slightly warmer than normal with the average monthly temp some 0.3 degree above normal. Rainfall was deficient by 1.98 inches. Greensboro - NWS RDU noted that the mean temp was 1.9 degree above normal and rainfall was 2.88" below normal. No new record temperatures were set this month. Henderson - Temps were near normal with rain below normal. Correction: George reports that I listed his August rain for September, so we must clarify...September total rainfall was 3.31" with 2.72" falling on the 4th. 6 days had measurable precip while 1 day saw rainfall >=1.0". The 3.31" for the month brought the total for the year to 42.11". Sorry George! Crunching numbers is difficult at times! Have made the corrections at our Internet site as well. Raleigh - NWS RDU reported a tied record low temperature of 29 degrees on the 23rd. Rainfall was slightly below normal (-0.08"). The monthly mean temp was 1.0 degree in excess of the norm. Raleigh - A dry month here, according to Bob Woodson, with only 0.54" recorded in addition to the 1.41" that fell on the 7th and 8th. The first freeze occurred on the 23rd which is the same date of the first freeze in 1997. Roxboro - Mostly sunny, blue skies and bright autumn colors painted October as a beautiful but dry month. Temps averaged above normal while precip in Roxboro fell 2/3 below normal. Wilmington - NWS ILM noted that October is supposed to be the driest month of the year there with an everage of 2.69". But even that amount would have been nice this year since the total was about half the average. No precip records were tied or broken. Temps again were a little warm, some 0.7 degree above the normal. The month's low temp, 37, was reached on the 23rd and 24th. The low on the 23rd tied a record for the date set in 1974. Sunshine was quite prevalent during the month with 84% of possible. Columbia - From NWS CAE: the average temp was 2.5 degrees above normal while rainfall was 2.79" below normal. Greenville-Spartanburg - The month's precip total was 1.22" below normal while the mean temps were 2.9 degrees above normal. (NWS GSP) Ruby - October was a very dry month with temps under 90 degrees all month. Tri-cities - The month's mean temperature was a whopping 3.7 degrees above normal while precip was an equally whopping 2.36" 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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------