November 2021: Cold and Dry

 

November 2021 is on track to finish as a cooler and drier than average month in the Nation’s Capital.  That would make this month D.C.’s fourth colder than average November in the last five years.  However, it will be remembered for its streaky weather with alternating stretches of warmer and cooler than average temperatures.

This month’s average monthly temperature (combining daily high/low temperatures) in Washington, D.C. is 2.0° cooler than average.  That’s in contrast to November 2020, which finished 4.4° warmer than average and tied for D.C.’s fourth warmest November on record.  So far, this month had four days with highs in the 70s in the Nation’s Capital, compared to the most recent 30-year average of roughly three such days.  The warmest temperature this month was 74° on November 18.  D.C.’s coolest temperature was 30° on November 24.  

This has also been a dry month with only 0.98” of precipitation at National Airport.  That’s approximately a third of D.C.’s November rainfall average of 2.91”.  D.C.’s wettest day of the month was November 12 with 0.64”.  This could be the third November in the last decade to finish with less than an inch of rain.  Meanwhile, two of the last three November’s have been wetter than average in Washington, D.C.  That includes November 2018, which finished as D.C.’s wettest on record (7.57”), and last November (6.14”), which was D.C.’s sixth wettest.

Despite being a colder and drier than average month, no snowfall has occurred in the Nation’s Capital.  Accumulating November snowfall is a relative rarity, with only one such occurrence over the last two decades (2018).  No direct correlation exists between November’s dominant weather pattern in the D.C. Metro Area and what the upcoming winter will be like.  My colleagues and I on the WUSA9 Weather Team issued our “Winter Weather Outlook” earlier this month.  

 

D.C.’s Driest Novembers (Source: NWS)

1.  0.29” (1981)
2.  0.37” (1965)
3.  0.53” (2001, 1917)
5.  0.55” (1922)
6.  0.60” (2012, 1908)
8.  0.76” (2016, 1936)
10.  0.79” (1930, 1890)