FOX44 - Burlington / Plattsburgh News, Weather & Sports11.12.11 Knowvember The Numbers!

11.12.11 Knowvember The Numbers!

I love thinking back to a year ago.  What was I doing on this day?  Where was I? I guess the National Weather Service likes to do that too!  In their daily almanac, they give the high and low from today, the record, the average, and last year's numbers.

Here's our #'s from Saturday, Nov. 12th....

2011                          2010

High: 47                       58

Low: 36                        25

Ironically it was a much warmer day in Burlington one year ago than it was today! But that's not what I'm here to show you.  It's quite the opposite.

Through the first 12 days of November, it has been MUCH warmer this year than 2010.  Let's look at the #'s.

2010

2011

 The Burlington National Weather Service wrote a monthly climate discussion and review for November 2010.  Here's an excerpt:

MONTHLY WEATHER PATTERNS AND GLOBAL CLIMATE DRIVERS...

"The main 500 mb weather pattern over the North Country consisted of an abnormally weak trough of low pressure over the northern half of the contiguous United States. However, the month started out with a very deep trough over the eastern third of the country, while strong ridging dominated the west. This resulted in cooler-than-normal temperatures and periods of rain and snow showers until the trough finally moved to the east." - courtesy NWS BTV

I circled the first 12 days of November last year.  This is in Burlington, VT.  The green area is the 'average'.  Blue is record lows and red is record highs.  After the cold shot, temperatures warmed quickly and the trend changed.

The set up has been different this November.  We've had a large scale ridging in the eastern half of the U.S.

You're looking down on the earth where the North Pole is in the center of the picture.  Find the United States.  Across the northeast there's that yellow, orange, and red area.  That shows higher-than-average 500 mb levels, which generally means warmer temperatures. In the west, there's large-scale troughing.  I stopped this 30-day loop on November 7 because it's right in the midst of this warm start to November.