Vermont October Was Sunny - With Oddly Warm Days And Cold Nights; Dry Stretch Continued

October saw many days like this - clear skies with cold 
mornings and mild afternoons. The month was
overall slightly cooler than average, but days were
warmer than average, nights were colder
than average. 

 You probably noticed how often I referenced "big, fat high pressure systems" during October. 

Now, the figures are in and October in Vermont featured warmer than average daytimes and colder than average nights. 

That's unusual, but it makes sense in context of those big, fat high pressure systems. 

Those high pressure systems brought lots of unusually dry, sunny days. That meant the sun heated afternoons to the point they averaged above normal. It also meant nights got cold and frosty. 

Burlington's average low temperature was 38.7 degrees, which is a tad over three degrees below the "new normal." 

The nights were so cold that eight nights got into the 20s, the most since 2002, when there were also eight. The last time there were more than eight such nights in the 20s was way back in 1974, when there were ten such dates. This according to WCAX-TV meteorologist Gunnar Consul. 

Add it all up, the average temperature turned out to be 49.2 degrees, which was 1.1 degrees below the "new normal."

The result was a month that on paper ended up averaging near normal. 

Take Burlington, the main reporting station had an average high during October was 59.6 degrees, which was 0.7 degrees above the "new normal" 

"New normal" is the climate-changed average temperature, based on all the temperatures from 1991 to 2020. Those years were warmer than the 20th century average. 

Overall, October comes in somewhere in the middle of the past 136 years of records I have for Burlington.  It was the 74th coolest, (or 62nd warmest) on record. 

The warmest it ever got in Burlington during October was 70 degrees. That's the lowest October high since 2009. The low of 26 was the coldest since 2015. 

Elsewhere in Vermont, it was much the same. The average daytime hight at other weather stations across the state were about two degrees warmer than normal, give or take. Overnight lows were generally two to as much as three degrees colder than average. 

The bottom line: For places across the state, it was a month that was near to about a degree below the "new normal"  we're living under.  

Precipitation

It was a dry month statewide, thanks in large part to those big, fat high pressure systems that kept a lot of rainy storms at bay. 

In Burlington, October rainfall amounted to 2.52 inches, with is 1.31 inches lighter than normal. That left Burlington with the 55th driest October out of the past 127 years of records. 

Other reporting stations across Vermont were equally dry, or even worse. St. Johnsbury was among the "wettest," coming in just about two-thirds of an inch on the dry side. Montpelier's rainfall were a little over an inch below normal. 

Southern Vermont was even worse. Rutland had only 1.33 inches of rain, which was 2.65 inches below normal. Bennington had about 2.2 inches less rain that an October would normally bring. 

Outlook

As we've mentioned already, November is off to a mild start. For what it's worth, NOAA is calling for a classic, strong El Nino pattern across the nation. The northern half of the United States is forecast to be warmer than normal during November. 

Precipitation in November is expected to be above normal across the southern United States and in eh Plains. Here in Vermont, NOAA has our precipitation as a tossup - equal chances of above or below normal precipitation. 

As always, we shall see.