Weather Update: October Recap and November Outlook
Last week of October was perfectly pleasant if you are a fan of seasonal temps. Every single day of the last 7 days of the month were spot on for this time of year. And November starting out yesterday with quite a bit of clouds and cooler than average temperatures.
October Recap
Looking back at October, the month started off quite warm. We had several days in the 80s– and even a couple days where our suburbs got into the low 90s on the 3rd and 4th. Coldest afternoon so far was on the 22nd with a high of only 50 degrees– which was ten degrees below average for that late October date. The coldest morning so far at O’Hare was 34 degrees on Friday the 24th. We had above average sunshine for the 10th month of the year.
Rainfall in October
October has been pretty good to us when it comes to rain. We gained some ground in our dry fall– but still fell a tad short of average rainfall.
But when you factor in our really dry September weather, we’re only at about half of expected rainfall for the meteorological autumn. Meteorological autumn consists of the full months of September, October and November.
Drought Conditions
Our dry weather issues are cumulative– we’re coming off a summer that was unusually dry (except for July). And our last winter which was pretty absent of any significant snowfall– and ended up in our top ten least snowy in Chicago winters since records began in 1871. This persistent drier than normal weather is showing up in the Drought Monitor that comes out every Thursday from the US Dept. of Agriculture.
Almost all of Chicagoland still in some form of drought. Some areas in NW Indiana are the only areas not in some form of drought. Western parts of Chicagoland in what’s considered “moderate to severe drought”. The dry weather can dull fall colors on the trees and cause premature leaf drop– so hopefully recent October rains have helped the fall colors pop more this week in your neighborhood. We are considered just past peak leaf color for northern Illinois and Indiana.
Impact on Plants and Grass
With our dry weather– many of our landscape plants and grass will want a good drink of water before the freeze arrives– it helps those plants survive the winter better. Downstate areas have even worse drought conditions in both Illinois and Indiana.
Temperature Outlook
Historically, though while we can see some warmth in the fall and early winter months– we are past some historical temperature milestones for latest in the year we’ve ever seen for 90s, 80s, and 70s.
Great Lakes water temps are now retreating a bit faster. 53 degrees today on Chicago’s beaches. Water temps along the Chicago shore reached peak warmth in August when the lakefront water hit 77 degrees. That’s one degree warmer than all of last year.
Lake Effect Snow or Rain
Our warm-ish lake water can have a big impact on our fall weather. Since water hangs onto heat more effectively than air does– the Great Lakes provides the moisture to cold, dry air that blows in from Canada. The combination of cold air and warm lake water can make for some big lake effect snow or rain in the fall and early winter.
Snow Outlook
No snow anywhere near Chicagoland– at least yet. It’s been more than 200 days since our last snowfall– the flurries we saw on April 7th. But our first snowfall usually happens around October 30th.
October is technically one of our “snow season” months. But the average is only a trace of snow. November’s average is less than 2″. Sometimes the first snowflakes hold off until late December. As it did in 2021 on the 28th– our latest ever on the calendar first snow.
Daylight Hours
While the shift to standard time feels impactful to all our routines– we actually only lose 58 minutes of daylight over the course of November’s 30 days.
Early risers will notice that while the afternoons are darker earlier– mornings are brighter earlier. Our shortest days of the year happen next month around the solstice, when Chicagoland sees only about 9 hours and 7 minutes of daylight.
November Outlook
The 11th month year for Chicagoland has average high temps that start at 55 on the 1st and down to 42 for an average high on the 30th. The average low temperature is 40 on the 1st of November and by the 30th it’s down to 29 degrees. November is our 5th least snowy in our snow season with only 1.8″ of snow on average. We usually get about 2.42″ of rainfall in November– making it our 9th rainiest month of the year.
