Iowa has now recorded eight consecutive months of above normal temperatures. State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says, on average, the state had a little less than one-inch of rain in October. The average temperature was 54, which is about three degrees warmer than normal for the month.
“It’s a huge contrast to what October was a year ago, which was our wettest October ever and the coldest October in 75 years,” Hillaker said. The just ended month is now the 15th driest and 36th warmest October in Iowa in 138 years of statewide record keeping. The second weekend of the month featured temperatures in the upper 80s to low 90s.
“In fact, for the month as a whole, we had 10 days where temperatures hit 80 degrees or better somewhere in the state,” Hillaker said.”In October of last year, we never did reach 80 degrees. In fact, we didn’t even come close anywhere in the state the whole month.” The warmest temperature recorded last month was 93-degrees in Sioux City on October 8th. The coldest was 18-degrees last Friday morning in Elkader. Hillaker says a few cities recorded new record high temperatures for dates – but not many.
“Which has really been the case for much of this year,” Hillaker said. “Even though we’ve had a lot of warmer than normal months, it’s been done without a lot of extremes. We’re not getting really high for daytime highs or really low for overnight lows.” The forecast for the early part of November calls for continued warmer and drier than normal conditions.