DC’s warm November comes to a cold end

 

A late November day in the nation's capital

Despite the colder than average final two days of the month, November 2024 will still finish as the warmest on record in the nation’s capital. November will also finish as a drier than average month in the nation’s capital, the sixth such month of the year.

November had only five cooler than average days in the nation’s capital. That’s compared to 23 warmer than average November days. Three days even reached the 80s! That hasn’t happened since 1975. DC averages only one 80-degree November day roughly every five years, according to NOAA. Three record highs were also set this month.

With a monthly average temperature of 55.8° as of November 29 (that includes daily high and low temperatures), this month will finish over five degrees warmer than average. It will also set a new record for warmest November in the nation’s capital, breaking the existing record set in 2001.

Five of the last seven November’s were cooler than average in the nation’s capital, so this month should have felt especially warm by comparison. Ironically, while the recent trend has been for November to be cooler than average, eight of DC’s 15 warmest November’s have occurred just since 2000. NOAA’s current weather averages (for temperatures and precipitation) are updated every decade and the current averages reflect the 30-year period of 1991-2020. That means with the exception of 2022, those eight Novembers were factored into NOAA’s updated weather averages.

The fact that this November is drier than average has acerbated the drought conditions across the Mid-Atlantic Region. With only 1.81” of rain, well below the November average of 2.91”, this month is the 15^th with below average rainfall in the last 20 years. NOAA’s outlook for December is for near average temperatures with near to below average rainfall in the DC Metro Area.

DC’s Warmest Novembers (Source: National Weather Service)

1. 54.8° (2001)
2. 54.4° (1979, 1975)
3. 54.3° (2020, 1985)
4. 54.0° (1931)
5. 53.7° (2015)
6. 53.3° (1994)
7. 53.1° (2003, 1999)
8. 52.6° (2022, 2016)
9. 52.4° (2011)
10. 52.2° (2009, 1978)

Average – 49.9°