We wrapped up the month of October last week, and with all the data in now, here's a rundown on how the month turned out weatherwise, based on readings from the RDU airport.
We ran a little dry for October, with rainfall at 1.41 inches, less than half the normal of 3.25 inches (we did, of course, follow that with a big rain to start November on Friday, topping 1.2 inches at RDU). Our wettest October was in 2002, whereas just two years before that we got no measurable rain at RDU, but did have a trace (less than one-hundredth of an inch) recorded on one day.
The second graphic here shows that overall temperatures ended up averaging about 1 degree above normal, at 61.7 degrees. This was a little on the warm side but still well within the pack of typical variability, a good bit below the warmest October in 2007, which ran almost 6 degrees warmer, and much milder than the very chilly October of 1988, which averaged out over 7 degrees cooler.
This October brought an overall range of temperature that spanned a 60-degree spread, with our coldest reading 29 on the morning of the 26th, following an early month maximum of 89 degrees on the 5th. The rainiest day was Oct. 7, with .86 inches accounting for well over half the rain we received during the month. Overall, there were 8 days with measurable rain and a total of 12 days with at least a trace. The highest wind gust recorded during the month showed up just as we closed it out, with a 28 mph gust from the southwest measured on Halloween.
We're kicking off November with some variability, as a series of fronts has stepped our temperatures and humidity down quite a bit between Friday and Monday. It appears we'll repeat the cycle to some extent this week, with a decent warmup between now and Thursday followed by another frontal passage that should leave us chilly, bright and dry Friday and Saturday.
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