NOTE – Rainfall and temperature information is based on data kept at Milford Lake by the Corps of Engineers. For more information contact Chuck Otte, 238-4161.
October 2016 Weather Summary
The national weather media has been declaring October as “Hot-tober” and with overnight lows running almost as high as the average daily highs on many days, is it any surprise. For the fourteenth consecutive month we have average overnight lows that were well above average!
The average daily high during October was 73.8, 6.1 degrees above normal. The average overnight low was 52.4, 8.4 degrees above normal. This gave us a monthly mean temperature of 63.1, 7.3 degrees above normal. October 2016 is the 4th warmest October on record. The warmest October was 1963 with a monthly mean temperature of 69.0 degrees. The coldest October is a tie between 2002 and 2009 with a mean temperature of 49.1 The warmest temperature during the month was the high of 88 on the 16th. The lowest temperature for the month was 35 on the 12th. While this did create scattered frost around the area, it does not constitute an official first freeze of the season and the growing season continues. The latest first freeze on
record is November 10th (1998), but that record may be in jeopardy the way
this year is shaping up! There were two temperature records set and one tied
in October, all were record high low temperatures. The low of 70 on the 15th
broke the old record of 68 set in 1962. The low of 62 on the 30th broke the
old record of 56 set in 1950 and again in 1977. The low of 63 on the 26th tied
the record for that date, first set in 2014.
After some nice showers the first week and a half of October it looked like we
might be settling in to a dry pattern. That dry pattern didn´t last long when
heavy intense rain hit Junction City and west central Geary County the early
morning hours of the 26th. Both Junction City and Milford Lake reporting
stations recorded nearly 3 inches of rain. Average October rainfall is 2.62
inches. Milford Lake received 4.57 inches of rain in October. Junction City
received 4.86 inches of rain. Year to date Milford Lake has received 37.94
inches of rain and Junction City 38.55 inches. Normal rainfall for the area
from January through October is 30.58 inches. The wettest October on
record was in 1941 when 12.12 inches of rain was recorded. The driest
October was in 1938 when only 0.02 inches of rain disturbed the dust in the
rain gauge!
November, with it´s rapidly shortening hours of daylight, normally shows
significant dropping temperatures as well. Average daily highs range from 61
on the 1st to 48 on the 30th. Average overnight lows would be expected to
drop from 39 at the beginning of the month down to 25 by the end. It´s going
to take some serious cooling down just to get to those average temperatures
so I think we can look forward to November being above average as well.
November through February is our driest time of the year. Average
precipitation for November is only 1.55 inches with long term average
snowfall for the month of only one inch.