United States October: Another Warm One, Especially New England

Pretty much all of the United States except parts of
Montana and the western Dakotas had yet another
warm month in October, according to the latest data.

 Data continues to trickle in on how the world's climate fared this October. 

The latest news is the United States summary from the National Centers for Environmental Information.

Overall, the United States had its 18th warmest October out of the past 129 years. The United States represents only a tiny fraction of the Earth's surface. Evidence continues to come in to confirm October worldwide will be the warmest on record. 

New England, especially Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine were particularly warm relative to average. Maine had its second warmest October on record. Vermont and New Hampshire placed third in the warm rankings. 

Most of the rest of the Northeast, and much of the Southwest were above normal.  The only place that was noticeably cooler than the 20th century average was southeastern Montana. The rest of the nation was fairly close to average. 

It's pretty impressive how widespread the record and near record warmth for the first ten months of the year have been. According to NCEI:

"Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida each ranked warmest on record while Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland each ranked second warmest for the January-October period. An additional 18 states had a top 10 warmest year-to-date period. No state experienced a top-10 coldest January-October."

Pretty much nobody in the United States experienced a chilly October.  The only places having a cooler than average 2023 so far are just a few isolated spots in the central Rockies. 

If you're looking for something normal, precipitation was pretty close to average in October. Same is true for the nation as a whole for the first ten months of the year. Of course, as usual, some places were way wetter than average, others were much drier.  The extremes canceled each other out.

Global analysis for the month of October should be out within a few days, and I'll provide an update when it's available.