Thanksgiving Week

November 2019 is poised to finish as one of DC’s coolest in recent memory.  The first three weeks of the month have also been unusually dry.  Thanksgiving is the final Thursday of November and it fluctuates from year to year.  There has been a lot of diversity in Thanksgiving weather in the Nation’s Capital.

Thanksgiving falls on November 28 this year and that’s the latest calendar date it’s been since 2013.  DC’s average high/low temperatures on November 28 are 53°/37°.  Washingtonians had a cold Thanksgiving last year with a January-like high/low temperature of 42°/29°.  By comparison, DC’s warmest Thanksgiving temperature was on November 22, 2007 with a record high temperature of 77°.  No measurable rain has occurred in Washington, D.C. on Thanksgiving since 2011.  

Longtime Washingtonians may recall that it was 30 years ago when area residents last experienced a snowy Thanksgiving.  That Thanksgiving on November 23, 1989 had a two-day snow total of 3.5” that began the previous day.  November 1989 finished 1.6° colder than average in Washington, D.C. and was followed by DC’s coldest December since 1917.  In fact, 1989 remains the only time Washingtonians had both a snowy Thanksgiving and a snowy Christmas.

Fortunately for those who don’t like colder than average weather, some moderating temperatures are on tap during the upcoming week.  They still won’t be enough to offset how chilly the first few weeks of November have been in the Nation’s Capital.  Through November 22, DC’s average monthly temperature (combining daily high/low temperatures) is 5° below average.  Since it’s been a drier than average month so far with only 0.66” in DC, tonight’s rainfall will be quite beneficial.

Temperatures this month will finish significantly cooler than average despite some milder temperatures during the upcoming week.  The milder temperatures should be just enough, however, to prevent the month from finishing as one of DC’s coolest in recent decades.  National Airport opened in the early-1940s and that’s where weather measurements for the Nation’s Capital have been made since then.  DC’s 10 coldest November’s on record all occurred before that.  DC’s coldest November since 1941 was in 1976 with an average monthly temperature of 43.0°.

DC’s Ten Coldest November’s On Record (Source: National Weather Service)

1.  40.2° - 1880
2.  40.6° - 1901
3.  40.8° - 1873
4.  41.0° - 1875
5.  41.4° - 1910
6.  41.6° - 1903
7.  41.9° - 1887
8.  42.3° - 1871
9.  42.5° - 1872
10.  42.8° - 1911, 1917

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DC’s Coldest November’s at National Airport (Source: NWS)

1.  43.0° - 1976
2.  43.1° - 1995
3.  44.1° - 1951, 1996
5.  44.9° - 1962
6.  45.0° - 1967
7.  45.2° - 1954
8.  45.5° - 1955
9.  46.0° - 1984
10.  46.2° - 1947, 1997
12.  46.5° - 2018
13.  46.6° - 2008, 2012, 2013
16.  46.7° - 1943, 2000