With an average temperature of 54.1 degrees Fahrenheit, the autumn season – the period between September and November – brought warmer- and wetter-than-average weather across the 48 contiguous U.S. states, slightly above the 20th century average.
The news was announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in its monthly climate report, released Wednesday afternoon.
While much of the country experienced near-average temperatures during the fall, Alaska experienced its 10th warmest autumn in 95 years of record keeping with a statewide average temperature 4 degrees above the 1971 to 2000 average, driven largely by the state's record warm October, Alaska's hottest since 2002.
Across much of the Rockies and Northern Plains, wetter-than-average conditions were observed as several states from Colorado to North Dakota each had precipitation totals for the fall that ranked among their 10 wettest.
Further to the west, California saw its 10th driest autumn on record with a seasonal precipitation total of 1.93 inches – just over 2.3 inches below the state's 20th century average for the season. Much of the Southeast, the mid-Mississippi River Valley and parts of the Northeast also saw below-average precipitation this autumn.
The nationwide pattern changed slightly in November, as below-average temperatures prevailed across a majority of the contiguous United States during the month – east of the Rockies. In theSouthwest and in Florida, November brought above-average temperatures.
Thanks largely to the parade of winter storms that have swept across the country in recent weeks,snow cover extent across the U.S. spanned more than 590,000 square miles in November, the 12th largest in the 48-year historical record covered by the Rutgers Global Snow Lab.
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