Midwest Weekly Highlights - November 15-21, 2010

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The Temperature Roller Coaster

After a cold first week and then a very warm second week of November, temperatures the third week were back to near to below normal (Figure 1). Temperatures were 1°F to 3°F below normal across most of Minnesota and in the Ohio Valley. Temperatures were 1°F to 2°F above normal in lower Michigan, and near normal in the remained of the region. There were only eight temperature records set the entire week.
 

Dry Weather Continues

Only southeastern Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio received significant precipitation this week, with rainfall near 150 percent of normal in eastern Indiana and western Ohio (Figure 2). A low pressure system centered over northern Mississippi and Alabama the morning of November 16th (Figure 3) moved northeast to near Lake Ontario by the morning of November 17th. A shield of rain spread northward from the low into the Ohio Valley, producing as much as 1.50 inches of rain in the hardest-hit drought areas of Indiana and the Ohio Valley (Figure 4). A thunderstorm in northern Kentucky associated with this system produced the sole severe weather report in the Midwest this week. A tree was blown over and a roof damaged near Milford, KY (Bracken County). The was little change in the November 16 U.S. Drought Monitor (Figure 5), and this one storm is not likely to result in a change in drought status in the Midwest.

-SDH-