Although the last few days of October cooled significantly, it still wasn’t enough to stop the month from being much warmer than normal. The average temperature for October finished at 12.2°C, down quite a bit from previous weeks but still way above 9.4°C, which is the normal average for the entire month.
Not a record in the last 56 years since records started at the Ormstown weather station – that was 13.2°C set in 2017 – but well up in the Top 10. The above normal warmth was due to the two days at the beginning of the month of 30°C, accompanied by several days when the daytime high reached close to that temperature, in addition to several days in the third week of the month when the daytime highs were above 20°C. In comparison, the record low average temperature for October was set in 1981 at 4.2°C!
The killing frost finally arrived on the last day of the month, setting a record for the latest date in the last 56 years. The normal date for the first killing frost is October 16, which is 11 days later than it was 30 years ago, and the date appears to be moving later as each year goes by.
The killing frost officially brought the 2023 corn heat unit (CHU) count to a close. Since the May 11th start date for the local heat unit count, the total recorded was 3,538 CHU for the 2023 cropping season, which is well above the 10-year average of 3,189 but below the record of 3,655 CHU recorded in 2021.
The rains continued throughout the last days of the month and were joined by a blast of snow. There was a total of 169 mm of precipitation during October, twice the normal average for the period, made up of 161 mm of rain and 5 cm of snow, which melted down to 8 mm of water. That’s 6.7” for those still working in Imperial units.
November 1-4
Not a lot of activity in the first four days of the month, with 0.6 mm of rain and 2 cm of snow for a total of 1.6 mm of precipitation. The average temperature was 4.4°C, which is sure to drop down closer to the monthly average of 2.9°C pretty quickly. The forecast for November is to be wet and cool at the beginning, then warmer than usual and dry in the middle, with a return to cooler temperatures in the last week. Daytime high’s will reach above 10°C on a few occasions, but nighttime lows won’t go much below zero for the most part.
