Sheldon, Iowa — November, 2017 was a very dry month, with just nine-hundredths of an inch of rain falling in Sheldon, but it was by no means the driest November we’ve ever seen.
Official Sheldon Weather Observer Frank Luepke looked back through the Sheldon weather records and discovered that there have been at least nine Novembers in which Sheldon received nine-hundredths of an inch, or less, of moisture.
According to Luepke’s research, the driest November on record in Sheldon was 1976, when we received just one-hundredth of an inch of measruable precipitation. All of the measurable precipitation in November, 1976 fell on the final day of the month, when two-tenths of an inch of snow fell, which melted down to the one-hundredth of an inch of moisture that was recorded for the month.
Luepke says it was the same story in November, 2007 when only two days of a trace of precipitation was recorded. But on the last day of the month we recorded two-tenths of an inch of snow melted down to two-hundredth of an inch of precipitation.
Other Novembers showing less than nine-hundredths of an inch of precipitation in Sheldon include: five-hundredth in 1903, 1939, 1976 and 2011; six-hundredths in 1949 and 1926; and eight-hundredths in 1980, according to Luepke’s research.
