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November below normal in temperature and precipitation, above in snow

News, Weather

December 2nd, 2019 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa/KJAN weather data) — State Climatologist Justin Glissan says November was below normal in a couple of areas. “Temperature wise — we were at 32-point-four degrees Fahrenheit — which is four degrees below average,” according to Glissan. “Looking at the precipitation side of things, we were at one-point-four inches. Which is about six-tenths below average.

In Atlantic, our average High for the month was 45, the average Low was 23, and we received just .85” (eighty-five one-hundredths) of an inch of precipitation (including both liquid and frozen forms), which was one-inch below normal. Statewide, Glissan says snowfall was the one area that was above normal for November. “We had four-point-four inches statewide — which is about two inches above average. And a majority of that fell in the northern part of the state,” Glissan says.

Atlantic was on the low side of the snow, however, at just 1.1 inches for the month. We entered the winter season on Sunday and Glissan says the outlook calls for more precipitation than normal in the coming months. “We’re looking at December, January, February. We do have a precipitation signal in the climate outlook that show us an elevated change of wetter than normal conditions all across the upper Midwest. In fact stretching from Seattle all the way to the east coast and down to Missouri,” Glissan says. “So yes, we’re in that higher probability of wetter than average conditions.”

He says there isn’t a clear read on what the temperatures will be like. He says we are in what’s called an E-C or equal chance of above, below or average temperatures moving into winter. Glissan says December is normally the third driest month of the year.