November 8-14, 2000

The period of November 8-14 continued the previous eastwards shift of the long wave pattern to place the Midwest in a more active weather regime east of a trough axis. Two substantial surface low pressure systems brought moderate precipitation to the northern and central Midwest, exceeding averages by 100% in some places (Figure 6). On November 9 and 10, a strong low pressure center moved from southwest to northeast across the central longitudes of the Midwest, dumping copious amounts of rain in a relatively warm system. The second low followed a similar path on November 13 and 14, again raining on the central Midwest, but in this case was accompanied by very cold air which turned the precipitation to snow in parts of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The snowfall on the 13th was limited to the region to the northwest of the cyclone path (Figure 7a), while on the 14th, the snow wrapped around the occluded low and reached further south in Wisconsin and Michigan (Figure 7b). While the storm totals rarely exceeded 6 inches, this was still the first wide-spread snowfall in the Midwest this season.

The eastern Midwest remained above normal in temperature for the week of November 8-14 (Figure 8), even with the presence of very cold air to the west. This situation has caused problems for farmers that were waiting for soils to cool before applying nitrogen fertilizers this fall; in many locations, it is now too wet for field work, and may remain so for a while.