November Summary for Cleveland and Ohio

Thanksgiving is over. The weather is beginning to quiet down. The snow cover has finally melted. What a better time than now to look back at how November stacked up versus last November and other Novembers of the past. Was it colder than last year? How cold/warm was it? Did we see an abnormal amount of snow? The graphics below should shed some light on this.

The overall pattern has featured a trough across the Great Lakes with the ridge out west. This allowed bursts of colder air to drain into Ohio. Notice that last year, the trough was out over the eastern seaboard. The western ridge was stronger and further east.

First the temperatures:  Over the last 4 years, much of the US had above normal temperatures with the exception of the east coast. This year, most locations east of the continental divide were well below average.

Yet here in northern Ohio, the average temperature this year was not much colder than last November. The November temperatures over the last two years were below the 30 year running average. November 2013 was the coldest November since 2000.

Even when you look at the average high temperatures (not counting the overnight lows) the numbers are similar to 2012.

The true indicator lies in the extremes. The number of days above 50 degrees were identical to 2012...

...yet the number of days below 40 degrees was far and away higher than last year, second only to 2008, third highest in 17 years.

How about snowfall? More than 2/3rds of the state had at least 2" of snow. The last time that happened (eyeballing this) was in 1980!

Cleveland snowfall was the highest since 2008, just slightly above the 4.4" average.