CLEVELAND — It’s been a record warm November… *SO FAR*! At Cleveland Hopkins, the average temperature has been 50.8° for November 1st - 23rd. That makes it the warmest on record for that period. The top 5 also includes 1994, 2003, 1975, and 1977.
If you’ve been around at all this November, you’ve probably noticed how warm it’s been. Highs have hit at least 40° each day. We had 3 days with highs in the 70s, including a tie for the record high on Election Day. There have only been 2 nights at the end of last week where Hopkins dipped to 32°. We have yet to record a sub-freezing night for the airport, which is the location for official measurements and records.
As we look ahead to the rest of the month, temperatures will be above average for Monday and then take a nosedive as we head into Thanksgiving and the start of December. Temperatures will be significantly below average to start the new month. No matter how cold we actually are for the rest of November, it would be incredibly unlikely that we flip the head start we have (5.7° above average) to come in below average for the month.
November of 2023 was actually the last time we had a full month come in below average. That month also started very warm and then ended very cold. November 1st - 13th was the 4th warmest start on record, but then it was downhill from there. After November 17th, it never got warmer than 54°. The month as a whole came in 0.6° below average. Quite the turnaround! Since then, every month has been at or above average for temperatures.
Let’s also have a brief moment of acknowledgement for November 1977. That month had the 5th warmest average temperature from November 1st - 23rd, then flipped to have the 5th coldest average temperature for November 24th-30th. Just another example of how drastically things can change during November.
