Midwest Weekly Highlights - October 25-31, 2007

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Quiet Weather At Last

The period of October 25-31 was a quiet break after the wild weather earlier in the month. No temperature or precipitation records were set during this week and no severe weather was reported in any of the Midwest states. Temperatures were close to normal across much of the Midwest (Figure 1). The coolest region was across southern Missouri where temperatures were five to six degrees below average and the relatively warmest area was western Minnesota where temperatures were three to five degrees above average. The rest of the Midwest was just one to two degrees away from average for the week.

In contrast to the week of October 18-24, when numerous precipitation records were set and drought across the Midwest was greatly reduced, the week of October 25-31 was fairly dry across the region (Figure 2). The Midwest was situated underneath a dome of high pressure during much of the period (Figure 3) and there were not many system passages to trigger showers or thunderstorms. Because of the lack of precipitation (Figure 4), there was no change in the drought status of northwestern Minnesota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and northern Michigan (Figure 5). Southwestern Indiana, southern Ohio and western Kentucky did show some improvement this week, although dryness into south-central Missouri is becoming more of a concern (Figure 6).

 

MCP