NWS (Paducah, KY) – October 2016 was a very warm and dry month across the middle of the nation. Many locations in our area experienced less than an inch of rain, with some places picking up less than a half inch! Normal rainfall for October is around 3 to 4 inches, so this was well below normal. On the heels of a dry September, the Quad State is now in need of some beneficial rain, as the faucet has shut off after a wet summer. October was also very warm with temperatures averaging well above normal, on the order of 6 to 7 degrees! All 3 official climate sites notched their 3rd warmest October on record. For Evansville this was the warmest October since 1924, some 92 years ago! Highs in the 80s were common, with the two warmest periods occurring from October 15th-19th and again the 29th-31st. Record highs and warm lows were established during this time. Low temperatures didn’t even drop below 70 degrees in Evansville and Paducah on October 18th! This was the latest occurrence of low temperatures above 70 degrees this late in the fall season in Evansville’s 120 year period of record. The previous latest was when the low only dropped to 70 degrees on October 10th back in 1904.
