Warm and Quiet
By Russell Russ
The wild and crazy weather patterns that we’ve experienced since August have seemed to calm down, for now anyway. November was a quiet month weather-wise. This November was tied with 2009 as the third warmest November over the last 80 years. With respect to temperature, total precipitation and snow it was very similar to November 2009. November 2010 was different only in that it was more normal (cooler) in monthly average temperature.
The month’s low temperature of 24 degrees was observed on both October 1 and 6 and the high temperature of 64 degrees was observed on October 9. The average mean temperature was 42.5 degrees, 5.5 degrees above normal. Record daily high temperatures were recorded on two dates. The high of 60 degrees on November 28 surpassed the 58 degrees set back in 1957 and the high of 59 degrees on November 29 surpassed the 57 degrees set back in both 1960 and 1984. The only Novembers to be warmer over the last 80 years were November 2006 with 43.2 degrees and November 2001 with 43.1 degrees.
The total precipitation for the month was 3.00 inches, 1.72 inches below normal. Through November this year, the total precipitation amount was 71.95 inches. For the first eleven months of the year we were 23.91 inches above normal and 19.40 inches over our normal entire yearly average amount of 52.55 inches. The year of 2011, through November, is already the third wettest year in the last 80 years. Norfolk’s record amount of total precipitation for a year was in 1955 when 76.04 inches were recorded. The second most was in 1996 when 73.76 inches were recorded. Doing the math, 2011 will go down as the wettest year on record for our station if we record 4.10 inches or more of total precipitation in December. The December average is 4.51 inches.
This month a total snowfall of just 0.3 inches was recorded. This was 6.4 inches below our normal November snowfall amount, but not record setting by any means.
Through November, the yearly snowfall amount for 2011 was 105.1 inches. Thanks to January and October this was 31.8 inches above normal and 14.3 inches over our normal entire yearly average snowfall amount of 90.8 inches.
This November was much warmer than normal with below average total precipitation and snow. It has been said that November’s weather, especially the latter half of the month, is a good indicator of what the coming winter will be like. We shall see.
