October Summary

It's a great Halloween evening. There's even a full moon out tonight! An awesome night for ghosts and goblins to go trick-or-treating!
As I suspected, the rain last night didn't amount to much. Only 0.59" of rain fell overnight. Although the forecast called for some light rain and clouds this morning, it turned out to be dry and sunny. It was actually a nice day for the end of October.
October ended up being 2.6 degrees below normal with a mean temperature of 50.7F (10.3C). The warmest temperature was 77.6F (25.3C) on the 30th of the month and the coldest temperature was 27.9F (-2.3C) on the 18th. As for precipitation, October ended up being 1.94" above normal with a total of 4.79" for the month. No snow fell during the month.

Halloween Snowstorm

This should turn out to be quite a memorable Halloween for many kids across the Front Range of Colorado and Wyoming. In this photo, you can see 21" (53cm) of snow piling up on the deck behind this house in Rollinsville, Colorado which is just west of Denver at an elevation of 9,200 feet (2,804meters). The city itself also saw a foot of snow causing traffic trouble and closed schools. Of course, this area of the country is well prepared for such a storm and managed to get through it just fine. Temperatures this upcoming week in the Denver metro area are forecast to be in the 50's and 60's. All but the big piles of snow in the parking lots will be nothing more than a memory next week.

Back at home, the weather has been somewhat interesting. The high temperature today reached 78F (26C) which was the warmest day since September 22. In fact, this was only the second day in October in which the temperature rose above 70 degrees. That's very unusual. Typically, we'll have about 7-8 days above 70 degrees in October. All of the warm weather of today was surging north ahead of a cold front. In fact, the warmth was coming in on strong winds. The peak wind gust today was 37mph (60kph) from the south. Although heavy rain was forecast for today, it seems that most of the rain has fallen apart the closer it moved towards us. We're getting some showers now, but I don't think they will add up to the 1 to 1.5 inches forecast earlier.

Halloween Weather

Although Halloween is the last day of October, it can be quite warm at this time of year. Here's a perfect example; the high temperature in Bloomington, Indiana was 88F (31C) on Halloween in 1950. I wonder if the residents of Bloomington were screaming "global warming"? :-)

Although records go back to 1871 in Indianapolis, 1954 in Lafayette, and 1895 in Bloomington, my records only go back 12 years to 1997. Nonetheless, the coldest maximum high I've recorded for October 31 was 46F (7C) in 2002. The warmest maximum high was 75F (24C) just one year later in 2003. The coldest low for the day was 35F (2C) in 2006. The warmest low was 63F (17C) in 2003. As for precipitation, I've not recorded any snow in the last 12 years on October 31 and barely any rain. A Trace of rain was recorded in 1997, 0.18" was recorded in 1998, and 0.13" was recorded in 2006.

Fall Color Quickly Fading

The fall color is quickly fading. The tree at right is in my backyard and it has lost nearly half of it's leaves. The early morning rain and wind brought a lot of the leaves down. I'm sure that by next weekend, there will be far fewer leaves on the trees if any at all. Some trees however, are holding on tight to their leaves. The pear trees in my yard are still green mostly. They usually hold on to their leaves until Thanksgiving! Based on what I see around the area, the fall color map from the Weather Channel is not very accurate. Of course, what from the weather channel is accurate? Anyway, it gives a general idea of what's going on.
Although 1-2 inches of rain was forecast for the area, 0.81 inches actually fell. Some areas to our west did receive over an inch of rain, but it seemed the rain really fell apart as it moved towards the east.

20 Year Anniversary: Indiana October Snowfall

Today, October 19, is the 20 year anniversary of the biggest October snowfall in Indiana since records began. I was a senior in high school in 1989 and remember the snow very well. Here at home, we received between 5 and 6 inches of snow. Some areas had twice that amount. It was a heavy wet snow too, coating everything and pulling it to the ground. However, it didn't stick around too long. Temperatures just days before were in the low to mid 80's. An area of low pressure over the southeastern US pumped moisture to the north while an area of high pressure over Missouri pulled arctic air into the region. Combine the two and we ended up with a historic snowfall event. You can follow this link to an LA Times article describing the storm.

First Hard Freeze of Season

The first hard freeze of the season occurred overnight. The morning low bottomed out at 27F (-3C). The temperature dropped below the freezing point at 4:30am and did not rise above the freezing point until 9:30am. That's five hours of sub-freezing temperatures. Certainly, that would be considered a killing freeze. When I woke this morning, everything was coated in a thick layer of frost. There was nothing patchy about the frost this morning. Looking at the map of morning lows, you can see that the heart of the cold air was centered over the Great Lakes region.

Here are the morning lows across the area:
Home: 27F (-3C)
Indianapolis: 31 (-1C)
Cincinnati: 28 (-2C)
Coldest in Indiana: 26F (-3C) at Goshen
Coldest in the lower 48: 16F (-9C) at Grayling, MI
Coldest in Alaska: 6F (-14C)

More Winter Outlooks

There are a lot of winter outlooks to examine this fall. What's interesting about all of them though is that they don't all agree on what the upcoming winter season has in store for us. The first forecast to look at is from Henry Margusity at accuweather.com. Henry's forecast (at right) indicates that we will have above normal snowfall.

The next forecast (at right) is from the website, snowday.com. This forecast also calls for above average snowfall and below normal temperatures.

The black sheep of the bunch is from NOAA. They are suggesting that a strong ElNino will develop in December bringing us a dry and mild winter. However, in their initial winter forecast, they had a much larger dry area and no cooler than normal areas. Time will tell what will happen.

A lot of times, the pattern that sets up in October and the first half of November is a good indication of the pattern that will continue through February. If the cool and stormy pattern that we've had over the last two weeks continues for the next four weeks I'd say winter will be great. However, a lot can happen in the next four weeks and I haven't ready anything on what the next four weeks will bring.

First Freeze Possible Tonight

A freeze warning is in effect from 12am to 8am Sunday. Temperatures should drop down to about 28F (-2C) tonight. A freeze warning means that a hard freeze is likely. In our area, a hard freeze means that temperatures will drop into the upper 20's, around 28F, for several hours killing exposed vegetation. A hard freeze signals the end of the growing season.

The fall color has really exploded in the last couple of weeks. Although is map indicates that our color is "patchy," I'd have to say that we have reached our peak and by next weekend will be past our peak of color. Already, a lot of trees have lost all of their leaves.

Strange Cloud Over Moscow, Russia

Here's an interesting phenomenon. A ring shaped cloud developed over Moscow, Russia a couple of days ago and is creating quite a buzz on the Internet. No one can explain the ring shaped cloud. Meteorologists from Moscow are saying that the cloud is an optical illusion while others say it is a UFO. You can read more about it here.

More Snow

It was a snowy morning in the Twin Cities this morning. Minneapolis/St. Paul picked up 3-4 inches of snow overnight and into this morning. This same storm stretched back towards Cheyenne, Wyoming where a multi-car pile up occurred on I25 south of Cheyenne. Road conditions apparently caught drivers off guard.

There's been quite a bit of snow this weekend across the plains states. Nearly 7 states are covered in snow this evening and more is on the way.

The lowest temperature in the nation this morning was 0F (-18C) in Cut Bank, Montana. In Indiana, the lowest temperature was 35F (2C) in Terre Haute.

It looks like the US is not the only place receiving some early October snow. Locations in Austria are also getting in on the action. Read more about it here.

North Platte, Nebraska Snowstorm

The Central Plains region of the country has seen a lot of snow over the last 24 hours. North Platte, Nebraska has had nearly 15"(38cm) of snow. You can see in the photo that the snow is piled high along the road edges, but not on the roads. I'm sure the road temperatures are still above freezing even though the air temperature is well below freezing. The current temperature in North Platte is 27F (-3C). Overnight lows for the next couple of nights will be around 15F (-10C). Here's a map from the NWS in North Platte that shows how localized the heavy snow was. You can click on the map for a larger view.
Here's an explanation of the snowstorm from the NWS in North Platte, Nebraska:
...Snowfall Records Shattered With The First Snowstorm Of The Season…

A new snowfall record was set for the month of October, when 13.8 inches was observed at the National Weather Service Office at North Platte
Regional Airport. The old record occurred way back on October 29th and 30th 1896, when 13.0 inches was observed.
Snow depths of over a foot and a half were reported in and around the North Platte area. Snow fell continuously from 8 pm CDT Friday evening until 10 am CDT Saturday morning. An unusually strong Arctic cold front ushered in temperatures from the upper teens to middle 20s by mid evening Friday. As a strong Polar jetstream acted to bring persistent lift to the area Friday night, moderate snow fell continuously across the Nebraska Panhandle into west central and central Nebraska. Because the airmass was unusually cold, this caused the snow to be rather
light and fluffy, thus the high snowfall totals. Below is a list of snowfall totals across western and north central Nebraska Saturday morning.

Expanding Polar Ice

It that time of year when we begin to look at the polar region to see the ice and snow cover expand. As the ice/snow cover expands, the polar icebox really gets going. The cold air can remain cold as it travels south into the lower 48. Hopefully, we'll see a lot of cold air this season. The map on the left is from September 3 and the map on the right is today, October 3. We'll check back in November to see how much further south the snow and ice has expanded.

First Patchy Morning Frost

This morning was the first morning of the '09-'10 fall season in which frost was visible. Nothing widespread was seen, but frost was visible on rooftops. The low temperature this morning was 37.

September Summary

The month of September has turned out to be drier than normal. Locally, I've collected 2.29" of rain which is 0.59" below normal. Temperatures have also been below normal by 0.7F. The warmest temperature in September was 82F on the 15th and the lowest was 43F on the 30th. Below is a much more detailed look at September for Central Indiana.

From the NWS in Indianapolis, Indiana
Central Indiana September 2009 Climate Summary
September 2009 was a quiet weather month. A persistent High Pressure Area with northerly or easterly winds dominated the weather from the 1st through the 19th. As the High Pressure Area moved east, an upper level trough remained over the state from the 20th through the 27th bringing wet weather to southern Indiana. September finished with autumn like weather after a strong cold front moved through the area late on the 27th.

September monthly temperatures averaged from slightly below normal to more than 2 degrees above normal. Little rain fell in many areas north of I-70 while in southern Indiana rainfall exceeded 6 inches in numerous areas near US 50 and south.

Temperatures
Monthly temperatures during September 2009 averaged from slightly more than 1 degree below normal in west central Indiana to more than 2½ degrees above normal in some areas of central Indiana. Compared to August, average temperatures declined 3.5 to 5.5 degrees. Typically temperatures fall more than 7 degrees from August to September.

September began on the cool side and ended on the cool side. From the 3rd through the 28th, temperatures ranged from near normal to above normal. Summer like weather prevailed from the 7th through the 23rd as temperatures reached into the upper 70s and lower 80s under generally sunny skies. The warmest day was the 15th when temperature rose into the middle 80s across the region. The coolest temperatures occurred on the 30th when temperatures fell to the 40s in most areas. No temperature records were set at Indianapolis this month.

Precipitation
September 2009 was a very dry month for much of central Indiana along and north of I-70 and a very wet month for southern Indiana near and south of US Highway 50. Rainfall was generally normal to much above normal south of a line from Graysville, Indiana to Spencer, Indiana to Brookville, Indiana and much below normal north of I-70.

Monthly rainfall ranged from less than a third of an inch in the Lafayette area to more than 10 inches in extreme southeast Jackson county and southwest Jennings county. Other southern Indiana areas near the Ohio River also received over 10 inches of rain.

There were two rain events during September, the 6th and the period from the 19th through the 26th. The heaviest rain was concentrated in southern Indiana for both times. Little or no rain fell from the 7th through much of the 19th in central and southern Indiana. Because of the warm and dry weather between these rain events, river flooding did not develop along the East Fork White or White Rivers from the heavy rains in the later part of the month. Dry to abnormally dry conditions prevailed during September for the area along and north of I-70.