October was much too warm, far too dry
AUSTIN (KXAN) — “How much longer for this summer heat?” “When will the fall air arrive?” “Will it ever rain again?”
These were just a sampling of the questions asked of the First Warning Weather team during October. It seemed like summer temperatures just wouldn’t go away with the blistering heat that the area experienced, especially the first 15 days of the month.
The first two days had highs in the upper 90s, then the low to mid 90s until Oct. 15. A brief dip to the 80s happened on Oct. 16, then a few days in the 90s until the final Saturday of the month, when Austin hit a high of 79°, the first and only day with a “normal” high. That also coincided with one of only two rain days the month would have.
The autumn air finally arrived during the last three days of the month, when we had our only blue box days of highs below normal. These autumn highs came courtesy of a cold front that breezed through on Oct. 28.
The average high of 89.5° is 7° above the monthly average. The average low was 64.5°, just under 4° above normal. Mornings were coldest on the 30th and 31st when the area had several lows in the 30s and 40s.
The area’s first freeze happened on Oct. 30 in the far western Hill Country when lows dropped to 32° and lower, specifically at Fredericksburg, Llano, and Mason.
When everything was added and divided, October’s mean temperature of 77° tied with 1931 for the second warmest temperature in Austin history, behind last year’s 78.1°.
Rain certainly was scarce, continuing a pattern that began after the July 4 holiday weekend floods. After just 0.08″ in all of September, October started entirely too dry.
Rain would finally fall on the 24 and 25. Both days had measurements areawide of 1 to 2″, with a few topping 3″ and one gauge in the Hill Country exceeding 4″.
The combination of the developing La Niña and a stubborn ridge of high pressure aloft kept the rain away for most of the month.
Depending on how you look at these things, the 2.76″ rain total for October, normally the second wettest month of the year (3.91″), was the 69th driest or the 61st wettest. Your choice.
November’s forecast from the Climate Prediction Center continues a trend that these forecasts have shown for the last several months. The month is forecast as Warmer Than Normal and Drier Than Normal.
November is the fourth coolest month with an average temperature of 61° and the 5th wettest month with a normal rainfall of 2.92″.
