The October outlook from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center is out. For our region the outlook favors above normal precipitation, but neither above nor below normal temperatures are favored.
As always, these outlooks are for the month as a whole. So week to week, temperatures can vary significantly on top of the normal decrease in temperatures during the month. For reference, the average temperature in Nome in October is about 30 degrees. Over the past 117 Octobers, temperatures have ranged from as high as 59 in 1954 and again in 2016, to as low as 10 below in 1966, although it's been more than 25 years since Nome had a sub zero temperature in October.
Normal precipitation, that is rain, plus the water content of snow, is lower than in September, but October is still, on average the fourth wettest month of the year.
Bering Sea storminess typically ramps up in October and historically is the most frequent month for coastal flood problems.
In the past, October would occasionally bring more than a foot of snow to Nome, although that hasn't happened since the 1990s.
