November rain slightly below normal despite late burst

Thanks to the 2.16 inches of rain that fell Tuesday and Wednesday at Long Island MacArthur Airport, rainfall for November came in at just a tad below normal for the month — 3.06 inches, with 3.67 inches being the norm.

That’s according to November’s climate summary, issued Thursday by the National Weather Service’s Upton office.

While this week’s rain made a slight dent in the year’s rainfall shortfall, the Islip Town airport is still 10.72 inches below normal, year to date, from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center, based at Cornell University.

Long Island remains in severe drought, the third of the U.S. Drought Monitor’s five categories.

Temperature-wise, November registered 2.6 degrees above the monthly norm at 47.7 degrees.

That’s in keeping with statistics for fall overall, which for meteorologists runs from September through November — meaning that on Thursday we just stepped into winter.

The airport’s average temperature for fall was 3 degrees above the norm of 55 degrees, which makes this autumn the fourth warmest since records started being kept in 1984, according to the regional climate center.

Precipitation for fall amounted to 9.02 inches, which is 2.02 inches below normal.

Looking ahead, the coming days bring dry skies, with highs of around 50 for Friday, but dropping to around the mid-40s through the weekend, according to the forecast from the National Weather Service’s Upton office.

The office’s forecast discussion on Thursday said, “After a dry weekend, periods of precipitation will be possible next week as a series of frontal systems impact the area.”