Climatological Background  During October, the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude storm tracks increase in strength, while monsoon systems in West Africa, South Asia, and southwestern North America continue their retreat southward following the maximum solar heating. Late season tropical storm activity continues in the North Atlantic, the North Pacific and northern Indian Oceans. Spring is underway in the Southern Hemisphere, with mid-latitude storm tracks losing strength.

Monthly Mean Temperature (1961-1990), data from the Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia

DATA: Univ. of East Anglia

Monthly Mean Precipitation (1961-1990), with data from the Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia

DATA: Univ. of East Anglia

Temperatures Over Land

Europe:  Temperatures were well above average across northern and eastern sections.
Africa:  Near average conditions prevailed over much of the continent with slightly above average temperatures across Southern Africa.
Asia:  Unusually cool conditions across north central Asia with temperatures as much as 3C below average in Siberia.  Above average temperatures were seen along the North Pacific coast and interior India.
Australia:  Unusually cool conditions prevailed across much of the continent (based on supplemental data from the Bureau of Meteorology).
North America:  Temperatures were above average from the southern Ohio Valley northward into south-central Canada.
South America:  Warmer than average conditions were observed across most of Brazil and in much of the tropical coastal region to the north.
 
 
 

Temperature Difference from the 1961-1990 mean, with data from NCEP Climate Prediction Center, CAMS.

NOAA NCEP CPC CAMS anomaly temperature anomaly

Precipitation

Europe:  Very wet conditions were seen across the British Isles southeastward to the Italian and Swiss Alps.  Unusually dry in eastern Europe.
Africa:  Rainfall was near average across much of western Africa as the rainy season draws to a close.  Drought conditions persisted across much of Kenya despite some rainfall in northwestern sections.  A wet start to the rainy season was observed in central sections of the continent.
East and Southeast Asia:  Unusually wet conditions - though less intense than in previous months - continued across Vietnam and Cambodia.  Eastern China had above average rainfall while tropical cyclone activity brought abundant rain to the Philippines and Taiwan.
Australia:  Above average precipitation was seen across much of northern sections of the continent from the Northern Territory eastward to Queensland.
South America:  A slow start to the rainy season in much of eastern Brazil with below average precipitation.  Uruguay and eastern Argentina were unusually wet for the month, as were sections of northwestern Brazil.
North America:  Unusually dry conditions across the eastern seaboard of the United States with Virginia and the Carolinas seeing the driest October on record.  The Southwest was unusually wet with some very heavy rain in parts of Arizona.  Unusually dry weather was observed across south-central Canada.  
Central America:  Hurricane Keith brought very heavy rain to Belize and adjacent border areas during the month.
 

Precipitation Difference from 1961-1990 mean, with data from NCEP Climate Prediction Center, CAMS-OPI.

NOAA NCEP CPC CAMS_OPI v9906 anomaly Precipitation Anomaly (mm/day). Contours 0.5, 2, 4, 6, 8,...

Oceanic Conditions

 Tropics:  Near-neutral conditions prevailed across the equatorial eastern Pacific.The slightly colder than average conditions in the central equatorial Pacific are not expected to amplify.   The central Indian Ocean remained above-average in temperature as did the western Pacific.
Midlatitudes:  Unusually warm water  persisted in northwestern sections of the North Pacific.  Above average temperatures in the central North Atlantic continued .

Monthly Sea Surface Temperature Difference from the 1950-1979 mean, with data from the Environmental Modeling Center, NCEP/NOAA.

IGOSS NMC monthly Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly