Midwest Weekly Highlights - October 25-31, 2011

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Cool Temperatures

The final week of October was cooler than normal across the Midwest (Figure 1). Temperatures averaged 1°F to 3°F below normal across the western half of the region to as much as 6°F below normal to the southeast. Daily temperature records for the week began with record highs in Missouri on the 25th and 26th followed by record lows, mostly in Kentucky and Ohio, later in the week.
 

Precipitation Misses Drought Areas

The rainfall for the week did nothing to alleviate the drought conditions persisting in the western half of the Midwest (Figure 2). Rains that fell were concentrated in the eastern half of the region with parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky receiving over an inch of rain (Figure 3). Rainfall exceeded 200% of normal in those locations while to the west below normal rainfall was the rule, ranging all the way down to no precipitation at all in northwest Missouri, western Iowa and southwest Minnesota (Figure 4). As newsworthy snows fell in other parts of the country, some stations in the extreme upper Midwest saw their first snow of the season with totals under an inch (Figure 5).
 

-MST-