November 2012 Revisited

November 2012 can be summed up kind of like this:

Above average: Temperature
Average or near: Rain
Below Average: Snow, wind, solar radiation
 
My station's average temperature of 44.0° was way warmer than the long term November average of 41.5°, and way warmer than the more recent (2001-2011) average of 41.4°.  The official average temperature in Hood River, recorded at HOXO, was 43.9°.

The maximum temperature (at my station) was 66°, and the low temp was 31°. Official Hood River highs and lows (at HOXO) were 69° and 30°.  The high heat index (at my station) for the month was 65°, and the low wind chill was 31°.

This wasn't just sort of a warm November; it was the warmest since 1999!  My peppers and tomatoes continued to produce throughout the month, but noticeably less enthusiastically as the month wore on, and the daylight hours dwindled.

And speaking of daylight hours dwindling, solar radiation averaged 96 Ly/day, compared to an average November of 119 Ly/day.  Although November was mild, it was a little cloudier than usual.

On to rainfall:  my station had 5.61" for the month, and HOXO officially recorded 5.50".  An average November gets 5.30", so we ended up near average.  The max daily rain was November 19th, when HOXO recorded 1.34", and I recorded 1.19".  That occurred in the middle of the first major rainstorm of the season (see video below).

It didn't snow in November, at least not down at City elevation.   Average November snowfall, as officially measured by MCAREC, is 2.7".

The 24 hour average wind speed at my weather station was 0.7 mph, pretty wimpy compared to an average November wind speed of 1.7 mph. The peak wind gust was 23 mph.   Wind speeds at other less sheltered locations, such as the Columbia River, were, of course, higher.  

Barometric pressure peaked at 30.47", and the low barometric was 29.53".

There was one local weather record set this month.  On the 5th, the high temperature reached 69°, which surpassed the old record for the date of 67°, set back in 1975.

These monthly summaries use data from my weather station located near May and Rand Streets in Hood River. To view my weather station's data for November 2012, click here.  For official Hood River data, and historical averages/records, the data comes from both the manually read NOAA station at MCAREC, and HOXO, the automated station located right next to MCAREC.

The first Really Big Storm of the season arrived in the Pacific Northwest starting November 17, and actually made the National News.   A very powerful Pacific front, so powerful it was being called a Superfront, wound up and slammed into the West Coast.   High winds, drenching rains... the typical Superfront type of storm action.   We didn't get much here in the Mid-Columbia except for the rain part.   But still, it was exciting, and the first really interesting active weather we had seen for quite a while.