NOAA: Report on October 2009 in the Contiguous States -- Precipitation Highlights

Dear Readers,

Below you will read that October was the wettest month in most of the U.S. for the past 167 years.

Here in Brazil, October was the wettest month in most regions for the past 67 years of record keeping.

I can attest to this because a couple of weeks ago, we had a downpour here that was more than the usual combined total for the entire month of October -- 15 inches in one night!

Tenney

• Precipitation Highlights - October 2009
  
• The U.S. recorded its wettest October in the 115-year period of record. The nationwide precipitation of 4.15 inches was nearly double the long-term average of 2.11 inches.
• Regionally, two of the nation's nine climate regions (the East North Central and South) saw their wettest October. The Central region had its second wettest October, while the West North Central had its fourth wettest. This was the first month since December 2007 that no region had below normal precipitation.
• Three states (Iowa, Arkansas, and Louisiana) saw their record wettest October. Fourteen other states had precipitation readings ranking in their top five category. Only three states (Florida, Utah, and Arizona) saw below normal precipitation.
• Arkansas continued its remarkable run of wetness in 2009. The state has seen four months with top three precipitation ranks this year (May, 1^st wettest; July, 3^rd wettest; September, 2^nd wettest; October, 1^st wettest). As a result, the state's year-to-date average is the wettest in 115 years of record keeping. This contrasted with persistent dryness in Arizona, which saw its second-driest year-to-date period.
• The three-month (August-October) rainfall was record-setting for many adjacent divisions within Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. It is noteworthy that this occurred despite only one tropical cyclone (Claudette, in August) making landfall in the region during this period.
• By the end of October, moderate-to-exceptional drought covered 12% of the contiguous United States, the second-smallest drought footprint of the decade, based on the U.S. Drought Monitor. Major drought episodes in California and South Texas improved significantly. Drought conditions emerged across much of Arizona.
• About 45% of the contiguous United States had moderately-to-extremely wet conditions at the end of October, according to the Palmer Index (a well-known index that measures both drought intensity and wet spell intensity). This is the largest such footprint since February 2005.
• Other Items of Note
• According to the NOAA Midwest Regional Climate Center in Champaign, Illinois, more than half of the long-term stations in the Midwest had one of their five wettest Octobers on record, with one out of five observing its wettest. Combined with the cold, this delayed crop planting and stunted crop maturity. Corn development was as much as four weeks behind in places, and the soybean harvest was well behind schedule throughout the region.
• Two major snow storms hit the contiguous United States during October. The first struck the Upper Midwest October 9^th through 13^th, while the second blanketed the western Plains States October 27^th through 30^th. By month's end, 13.6 percent of the nation was under snow cover, according to NOAA's National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center.
• Unusually cold and wet conditions across the middle of the country led to several snowfall records. Cheyenne, Wyoming observed 28 inches of snow during October, making this the city's snowiest October on record. North Platte, Nebraska recorded 30.3 inches of snowfall, making October 2009 the snowiest month of all months on record for the city. The previous record was 27.8 inches, in March 1912.
• October, like September, saw below-normal fire activity in all respects. A total of 3,207 fires burned about 158,000 acres in October, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center. Each of these values is below this decade's average for October.

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Alaska:

• Alaska had its 10^th warmest October since records began in 1918, with a temperature 6.3 °F (3.5 °C) above the 1971–2000 average.
  
  
• Alaska had its 15^th warmest August–October on record, with a temperature 2.2 °F (1.2 °C) above the 1971–2000 average.
  
  
• Alaska had its 22^nd warmest January–October on record, with a temperature 0.9 °F (0.5 °C) above the 1971–2000 average.

For additional details about recent temperatures and precipitation across the U.S., see the Regional Highlights section below and visit the Climate Summary page. For information on local temperature and precipitation records during the month, please visit NCDC's Records page. For details and graphics on weather events across the U.S. and the globe please visit NCDC's Global Hazards page.