Maryland Climate Bulletin

[dallen7908]

I'm sharing the MD Climate Bulletin disseminated by MD State Climatologist Alfredo Ruiz-Barradas

 

You can access the October Bulletin  from the following link:

 

https://www2.atmos.umd.edu/~climate/Bulletin/bulletin_mdsco_current.pdf

 

Points to highlight are:

1) Statewide averages show this month was warmer and drier than normal after a warmer and drier than normal September. This is the eleventh consecutive month with warmer-than-normal temperatures and the sixth month drier than normal since April.

2) Regionally speaking, the mean temperature was warmer than normal over nearly all the state, particularly over the southern Charles, Saint Mary's, and southern Calvert counties (above 2.1°F) and portions of Montgomery, Prince George's, Howard, Frederick, Carroll, and Baltimore counties (1.5‒1.8°F). Slightly colder than normal conditions appeared over northern Anne Arundel County. Precipitation was below normal in the entire state, especially over Baltimore, Harford, and Cecil counties, southern Saint Mary's, and Calvert counties, and Caroline, Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset, and Worcester counties (3.6 to 3.9 inches deficit). These counties, the whole Eastern Shore, and western Montgomery County received just 10% of their climatological rainfall for the month; the rest of the Piedmont and most of the Upper Coastal Plain received not more than 20% of their climatological rainfall. Counties in western Maryland had between 50 and 70% of their climatological precipitation.

3) The extension of the state under drought conditions covered 87% of the state at the end of October, a 6% increase with respect to September. Extreme drought conditions remained in the southern half of Garrett County, and moderate to severe drought conditions developed over the Coastal Plains and Harford and Cecil counties. The creeks and rivers in these regions had below-normal and much below-normal streamflow. Moderate drought conditions remained in portions of Allegany and Washington counties. Counties in the central and western Piedmont had normal to abnormally dry conditions with still normal streamflow in their streams and rivers.

4) Statewide maximum and minimum daily temperatures indicated that the number of days with extreme temperatures was larger than normal, although not the number of waves/spells by the end of October. There were 2 more hot days (maximum temperature warmer than 86°F; 50 vs. 48) than normal but 2 fewer heat waves (2 vs. 9); 12 more warm days (maximum temperature warmer than 80°F; 113 vs. 101) than normal but 2 fewer warm day spells (9 vs. 11); and 13 more warm nights (minimum temperature warmer than 68°F; 40 vs. 27) than normal but the same number of warm night spells (6).

 

5) Statewide daily total precipitation showed that the number of dry spells (consecutive days with daily precipitation of no more than 0.04 inches) was less than normal by 9 dry spells (31 vs. 40) by the end of the month. However, the mean duration of the dry spells was larger than normal by 2 days (6 vs. 4), and the longest duration of the spells was larger than normal by 8 days (24 vs. 16); the longest dry spell started October 8.

6)  Statewide mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures in October (58.3, 71.0, 45.5°F) were above their long-term (1895-2023) mean but far from their historical records of 63.3, 74.4, and 53.8°F set in 2007, 2007 and 2021, respectively. However, the maximum temperature was within 10% of the highest recorded values. Statewide precipitation (0.53 inches) was below the long-term mean within 5% of the smallest values and close to the record of 0.15 inches in 1963.

 

7) Precipitation indicated that October was among the sixth driest for 19 of the 23 counties and the fourth driest statewide. This month was the driest since 1895 for Dorchester, Wicomico, and Worcester counties.

The bulletin is issued once per month and shows the state's recent monthly surface temperature and precipitation conditions in a simple format, helping Marylanders better understand regional climate variations.

Please help disseminate this bulletin.

Thanks,

 

Alfredo

 

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Alfredo Ruiz-Barradas, PhD 

Associate Research Professor

Maryland State Climatologist
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science