National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The featured product above is the European/Western Asia surface wetness anomaly. Larg dry anomalies were evident across eastern Europe and into Belarus, the Ukraine, southern Russia, and western Siberia. The dry anomalies aided corn, sunflower and sugar beet harvesting in most of these areas. Winter grains also continue to develop in these areas, and some rain is needed especially in the Ukraine to help with crop development. Additional negative anomalies were noted in central Turkey and central Spain. Scattered positive wetness anomalies are shown across portions of southeast England, along coastal France, the southern Alps, parts of the Benelux, into Scandanavia. Media reports indicated that flooding in England was the worst in 50 years and along coastal Norway, excessive rainfall and flooding caused large financial losses to local fishermen along the fjords. Positive anomalies were also noted south and west of the Caspian Sea. Additional details and global regional information are available in other sections of this report.

Contents of This Report:

• African/Middle East Wetness Product
• South American Wetness Product
• Southeast Asia Wetness Product
• African/Middle Temperature Product
• North American Temperature Product
• European/Western Asia Temperature Product
• Southeast Asia Temperature Product

African/Middle East Wetness Product

Large positive wetness anomalies covered much of the fertile strip of northwest Africa; newspaper sources in Algeria reported that at least 28 individuals died around mid month due to storms and flooding. The region along the coastal plain had the most damage where the flooding damaged crops, carried away cattle and cut off roads in this agricultural area. In the Middle East, across coastal sections of Israel, media sources reported 100 mm (3.9 inches) of rain fell in parts of the area causing flooding and transportation delays.

In contrast, across the Sahel scattered areas of mixed negative and positive wetness anomalies were observed, most of this region is entering their dry season when little rainfall is expected. Elsewhere, scattered areas negative wetness anomalies were prevalent from the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, southwest into South Africa. This area needs additional precipitation for agricultural production.

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South American Wetness Product

Large positive wetness anomalies were observed this month over eastern Argentina, across Uruguay into southern Brazil. These anomalies correspond well to above average precipitation that was reported in the region. Six individuals died due to heavy rains in southern Brazil and numerous houses were swept away. The rainstorms hit 33 cities and rural towns in the Rio Grande do Sul state. In the state capital of Porto Alegere, overflowing rivers destroyed rice plantations and other crops. Other areas of positive anomalies were scattered across north sections of the continent. In contrast, pockets of negative wetness anomalies were noted across central Brazil, Bolivia and across Paraguay.

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Southeast Asia Wetness Product

The continent is a study in contrast this month. Positive wetness anomalies were persistent again across parts of eastern India and Bangladesh. Media reports indicate that several thousand people have died due to flooding with more than 4 million affected from flooding during the summer monsoon season in this region. Millions of dollars in damages have occurred from losses to standing rice crops, vegetables and fruit industries. Fish farming also suffered major damage as many of the fish farms have been washed away. Large positive wetness anomalies were also noted over east central China. This region had received periodic moderate to heavy rains and thunderstorms since mid September. Positive wetness anomalies were also observed over parts of Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam but much of the wetness signal maybe from standing water and flooding conditions earlier in the season. This region had suffered from widespread flooding in August and September.

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Large negative anomalies were noted over parts of Pakistan and western India. Negative anomalies were also noted over northeastern China.

African/Middle East Temperature Product

Cool anomalies this month were mainly across the northern third of the continent. These areas with the cool anomalies also had periodic cloudiness with agricultural areas along the Mediterranean receiving damaging rains at times especially across parts of Algeria. Cool anomalies were also noted across parts of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and in southeast Africa.

Positive temperature anomalies were observed near and along the southwest coast of Africa in Namibia and South Africa. Additional positive anomalies were observed over parts of the Great Rift Valley in east Africa, central Chad and interior Saudi Arabia.

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North American Temperature Product

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A dominant ridge of high pressure in the central part of the United States kept the region generally quite warm. The warmth was also noted over portions of the southeastern part of the country as well. Cooler than average temperatures were found across parts of the western U.S. mainly in New Mexico, Arizona and California. In parts of Arizona, the month was also quite wet with record rainfall recorded in some places for the month of October. These extreme records are available at October U.S. Extremes .

European/Western Asia Temperature Product

A trough of low pressure in the western Atlantic brought stormy and cool weather to western Europe. As a result of these conditions associated negative temperature anomalies were observed across parts of the British Isles and France. In contrast, a large ridge of high pressure aloft was centered east of Finland in northwestern Russia. The ridge kept much of Scandanavia and eastern Europe quite warm.

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Large negative temperatures anomalies were noted east of the Caspian sea with some locations nearly 4C below average.

Southeast Asia Temperature Product

A major trough of low pressure aloft with associated cold temperatures was centered over central Asia. Temperatures were coldest in the area from east of the Caspian Sea across Mongolia into northeast China. Temperatures were as low as -16 C at 50 degrees north in Karaganda, Kazakhstan during the mid month period. In Kyrgyzstan, northwest of western China, a valley city of Bishkek had heavy snow with temperatures below 0C at mid month. Monthly mean temperatures in this region for valley locations are around 10C.

In contrast, the largest warm anomalies were noted along the Indian/Pakistani border and across parts of southeast Asia.

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References:

Basist, A., N.C. Grody, T.C. Peterson and C.N. Williams, 1998: Using the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager to Monitor Land Surface Temperatures, Wetness, and Snow Cover. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 37, 888-911.

Peterson, Thomas C. and Russell S. Vose, 1997: An overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network temperature data base. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 78, 2837-2849.

For all climate questions other than questions concerning this report, please contact the National Climatic Data Center's Climate Services Division:

Climate Services Division
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue, Room 120
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4876
phone: 828-271-4800
email: ncdc.orders@noaa.gov

For more information, refer also to ...
SSMI Derived Products
Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN)
The Blended GHCN - SSM/I Product
The Global Temperature Anomalies

Tom Ross
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4499
email: tom.ross@noaa.gov

Jay Lawrimore
NOAA/National Climatic Data Center
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
fax: 828-271-4328
email: jay.lawrimore@noaa.gov

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