StormTrack Blog

Ida formed last week near Nicaragua and Honduras, and tracked into the Gulf Of Mexico over the weekend.  It will continue tracking towards the eastern gulf coast, and make landfall tonight near the Florida/Alabama border.

Hurricane warnings have been posted from the coastal areas from eastern Mississippi to the Florida panhandle.

Get the latest information with our Hurricane Tracker.

Saturday’s High:   68°   (Record 73°)

Sunday’s High:  71°  (Record 73°)

Normal high is 51°.

Last time we had a 60-degree temp followed by some 70s was in late September.

As we mentioned during the week, the weekend warm-up was going to follow a cold morning.    These lows were the coldest since March 21, and were about 10° below the normal high of 35°.

25°  Toledo Express, Monroe, Adrian

26°  Metcalf Field

27°  Lima, Defiance

28°  Hillsdale, Findlay

An analysis of midwestern weather records shows that following a cool & wet October, we typically see an about-face in November.  (Although some chilly temps will occur, the overall monthly average will come out above normal.)

One factor that supports this is the effect from El Nino.  In periods with strong El Ninos (like the one currently in the Pacific), autumns tend to start cold and then modify a bit…leading to a winter with above normal temps and below normal precipitation.  This does not mean the winter will be warm.  In fact, big cold spells do occur like a normal winter.  However, there tends to be less frequency and duration of them.

El Nino modifies the position and movement of the normal winter jet stream patterns.  This allows for the variations between cold and not-so-cold periods, plus less frequent storms (leading to below normal precip).  We still see snow, just not as much as a normal winter.

In the short term forecast, after a cold start Friday morning, temperatures will modify nicely over the weekend.  Some slightly cooler weather should move in Tuesday of next week, but temps will warm back up a bit later next week.

A typical November produces:

Normal High & Low:

Nov 1           55° / 37°

Nov 30       42° / 28°

Records:  80° / 2°

Precip:      2.78″

Snow:        2.6″

Sunrise & Sunset:

Nov 1       7:08 am / 5:30 pm

Nov 30    7:42 am / 5:06 pm

58 Minutes of daylight lost

During the month of October, 61% of the days were below normal.

Temps were below normal the first 18 days of the month, and above normal 11 of the final 13 days of the month.

The coldest temp was 27° on October 18, and the warmest was 75° last Friday (October 30).

Rainfall totalled 3.94″, which was 1.59″ above normal.