REGIONAL— The trend of milder autumn weather in the North Country continued in October and through the first week of November this year— and that came on the heels of a warmer-than-average September.
From Oct. 1-Nov. 7, the average temperatures recorded at most area reporting stations in northern St. Louis, Lake, or Koochiching counties ran anywhere from 2.9 degrees above average at Celina to 5.3 degrees above average at a station located 25 miles east of Ely. Tower was 3.9 degrees above average while Orr reported 4.6 degrees warmer than normal.
Those comparisons are based on the current 30-year average temperatures, which reflect a significant amount of warming that’s already occurred.
While October did include several days of cold and snowy weather, starting around the middle of the month, that was followed by unseasonably mild weather which set in during the final ten days of the month and continued through the first week of November.
Temperatures during this period were running anywhere from 20-35 degrees above average. Perhaps most dramatically, the overnight low on Nov. 2 was in the mid-to-upper 50s across much of the area, or about 15 degrees above the average high temperature for that date, and a whopping 30-35 degrees above the average low.
In Tower, the average high on Nov. 2 is 42.9 degrees, with an average low of 23.9 degrees, but average temperatures fall dramatically during the month. By Nov. 22, the average high temperature in Tower slips below the freezing mark and the average low is 13.1 degrees. By the end of the month, the average high temperature dips to 27.4 degrees, with an average low of 8.3 degrees.
The average high temperature in Tower won’t exceed the freezing mark again until March 6, when the average high reaches 32.3 degrees, a span of 105 days.
The temperature isn’t expected to top the freezing mark over the next several days, according to the most recent forecasts, as the region appears poised to slip into winter in the wake of a wintery storm that is expected to leave some snow and colder temperatures in its wake. The forecast for the coming week shows highs in the mid-to-upper 20s, or about 5-10 degrees colder than average with seasonal lows in the low-to-mid teens.