National Climatic Data Center, 16 November 2001

Contents of This Report:

• Statewide Temperature Ranks
• Statewide Precipitation Ranks
• Regional Temperature Highlights
• Regional Precipitation Highlights
• Regional Temperature and Precipitation Time Series
• Agricultural Precipitation
• Precipitation and Temperature Ranks, Extremes and Normals
• Water-year River Basin Statistics

Statewide Temperature Ranks

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October 2001 temperatures were warmer than average in the Northeast and Southwest. Nevada experienced its third warmest October in the 1895 to present record. In fact, Nevada's avearge temperatures for the three month period and the six month period ending in October were record warmest. Other states where temperatures ranked in the top ten warmest for October: New Mexico - fifth warmest Arizona - ninth warmest Seven additional states fell into the warm third portion of the historical distribution.

In contrast, Washington and Texas eastward to the Atlantic had cooler than average temperatures. The graph to the right shows the 1918-2001 temperature time series for Alaska. In October, temperatures averaged across the state were below the long-term mean. Temperatures have been near to below normal for five of the last six Octobers.

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Statewide Precipitation Ranks

October precipitation varied greatly with some states receiving much above normal precipitation and adjacent states receiving much below normal rainfall. Washington, Idaho and Oregon were wetter than normal. Another area of above normal wetness extended from Michigan south along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. States where October 2001 ranked among the top ten wettest Octobers were Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Alabama. Dry weather plagued the southwest quarter of the nation and the entire eastern seaboard. States where October 2001 ranked among the top ten driest Octobers included New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

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Regional Temperature Highlights

October 2001 was the twenty-first coolest such month in the 1895 to present record for the Southeast region. Temperatures in five of the last six Octobers have been cooler than average.

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It was the fifth warmest October in the1895 to present record for the West region. Average October temperatures in two of the last three years were well above the long-term mean.

Temperature time series for all regions can be found in the table below.

Regional Precipitation Highlights

October 2001 was the tenth driest such month in the 1895 to present record for the Northeast region. This was the fifth consecutive October where precipitation has been near to or below the long term mean.

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October 2001 was the sixth wettest such month in the 1895 to present record for the Central region. This was a departure from the last two Octobers where precipitation was below normal.

Precipitation time series for all regions can be found in the table below.

Regional Temperature and Precipitation Time Series

Historical precipitation and temperature ranking maps are also available on the Internet courtesy of the Climate Prediction Center.

Additional information about current climate anomalies can be found at the respective Web Pages of the Southern Regional Climate Center, Western Regional Climate Center, Midwest Regional Climate Center, Southeast Regional Climate Center, High Plains Regional Climate Center, and the Northeast Regional Climate Center.

Agricultural Precipitation

Preliminary data indicate that precipitation in the Primary Hard Red Winter Wheat Belt was below normal for October 2001. The growing season runs from October 2001 through February 2002.

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Data Tables

Table 2 shows historical extremes for October, the 1961-1990 normal, and the October 2001 value for each of the 9 regions and the contiguous U.S. for precipitation and temperature.

Table 3 shows statistics for selected river basins: Precipitation rankings are for October 2001, where 1 = driest, and 107 = wettest, based on the period 1895 to 2001. Also shown is the areal percent of the basin experiencing severe or extreme long-term (Palmer) drought, and areal percent of the basin experiencing severe or extreme long-term (Palmer) wet conditions, as of October 2001. The river basin regions are defined by the U.S. Water Resources Council.

It should be emphasized that all of the temperature and precipitation ranks and values in Tables 1 through 3 are based on preliminary data. The ranks will change when the final data are processed. National ranks and values are based on a combination of USHCN and divisional data.

References

Thomas R. Karl and Albert J. Koscielny, 1982: "Drought in the United States: 1895-1981." Journal of Climatology, vol. 2, pp. 313-329.

Thomas R. Karl and Walter James Koss, 1984: "Regional and National Monthly, Seasonal, and Annual Temperature Weighted by Area, 1895-1983." Historical Climatology Series 4-3, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC, 38 pp.

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