A Dry Fall and November. How does that put us for the year?

We are completely finished with what is deemed as meteorological fall. I thought we could take this opportunity to see how we stacked up compared to previous fall seasons on record as well as how November stacked up. I will finish this article up with how we are looking for the year as well.

November

Now that November is over and it was the last full month of the Fall Season. Let's see exactly how it shakes things up for the final numbers overall. There was no question November was a very dry month. As a matter of fact. November 2016 will go down in history as a month that ended the longest dry streak in the history of Rowan County.

For a span of 51 consecutive days we had no measurable rainfall in Rowan County. A streak that started on October 9th before ending on November 28th. Smashing the old record by 13 days. A record that was set in November of 2000. If you look at the Top 10 driest Rowan County streaks in history dating back to when records started in 1893. 6 out of the top 10 driest periods ended in the month of November. It's no surprise we get very dry this time of year.

The Month of November 2016 we had only 0.48 inches of rainfall and that occurred at the very end of the month.

This was the sixth driest November on record for Rowan County.

November was also a fairly warm month as well. We had what could be considered an extended Indian Summer in some ways.The average temperature in the month of November was 52.4º tying for 30th all time warmest November on record with November of 2004.

So with the November numbers in place. How did that affect the Fall Season for us?

Fall 2016

Much to none of our surprise going into the fall we had been dealing with a fairly hot and very dry year overall. As we ended the Meteorological Fall season things pretty much stayed dry. Hurricane Matthew brought us most of our Fall Rainfall totals.

With only 6.36 inches of rainfall this Fall will go down as the 33rd driest Rowan County Fall season on record.

The heat continued to stay on well into the fall season.

The Fall Season of 2016 for Rowan County will go down as the 14th hottest Fall of all time. Just over 5º off the record warmest Rowan County Fall Season of all time which occurred in 1984.One thing interesting to look at on this list is half of the top 14 hottest fall seasons on record in Rowan County took place before 1950. 6 more of those slots occurred from 1950 - 2000. With only 2016 being after the year 2000.

Now we have discussed the month of November, We have discussed the Fall Season. So let's finish up with how are we doing for the year overall?

2016

With only a few more weeks left in 2016 this will give you a pretty good idea of how we will most likely end up overall with the hottest and driest years on record for Rowan County. Lets start with the rainfall total.

Currently we have having the 4th driest year on record for Rowan County. just a little over 3 inches above the driest year on record. We will most likely finish the year up when everything is said and done with one of the top 10 driest years on record for the county by the time we end the day on December 31st.

It has been a hot year in Rowan County but we are not going to finish the year up anywhere close to the hottest year on record for the county.

Currently we are at 27th hottest in a 7 way tie with 1916,1919,1925,1941,1948 & 2002. The temperatures for the remainder of the year look to stay below the 60º so we should certainly continue to fall on this list.. We will most likely finish in the top 50 for the hottest years on record but again encouraging that we were not dry and hot.

In a few weeks I will post how we finished overall for the year. You can certainly get a good idea form where we stand now on where we will most likely finish. Thank you as always for following Rowan County Weather!