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Oscillating October
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The month of October is a swing month for a lot of northern states, as nature's weather pattern takes a bit of a turn. October is a time when the leaves change color, the first frost usually takes place and occasionally it snows! It can also be a month when little of any precipitation falls, as was the case in two recent Octobers in the D.C. area, when drought conditions prevailed. Most of the time droughts are thought of to take place in the heat of the summer, when for the Eastern U.S., an area of strong High Pressure camps out east of the Mississippi and any fronts that move in from the west get deflected to the Great Lakes and into Canada. Droughts; however, can be just as common in the fall, when again High Pressure stays parked over the East Coast and a west-northwest wind flow becomes the primary wind direction, shutting off any moisture transport from the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic.
The two driest months ever for Washington,D.C. were October 1963, when just a trace of rain fell and October 2000, when 0.02" fell for the month. For a listing of the top ten driest months in the District, view here. This October; however, has been above normal with just over 3.5" of rain (normal October rainfall 3.02") with just about a third of that amount falling within a 24hr period on October 17-18th (1.24"). Looking back to October 2008, D.C.had below normal rainfall and in 2007, the month started out bone dry, before receiving a healthy dose of rain. In 2007, severe drought conditions persisted through October, when in early October, rainfall deficits totaled nearly 10 inches. However, a series of storms late in the month brought between 3 and 6 inches of rainfall to slightly reduce those deficits. Several jurisdictions within the Washington DC metro area posted either voluntary or mandatory water restrictions throughout the month, just before the needed rainfall came towards the end of the month. At the time the National Drought Monitor listed portions the area under Extreme Drought conditions.
Nine years prior, in October of 1998, was another very dry October as a persistent high pressure system over the Southeast U.S. forced most rain storms to steer north of the region during the month. This resulted in unusually dry weather for the District of Columbia, creating the fourth straight month of drought conditions. Only 0.59 inches of rain fell at Reagan Washington National Airport during the month, 2.43 inches below normal. To put the severity of this drought in perspective, only one other year on record (1930) had ever come close to the lack of rainfall National Airport saw from July 1st to October 31st. The 4 month total at the airport was only 4.80 inches and according to records at the Reagan National airport site, October was the 2nd driest since the Civil War.
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