Sheldon, Iowa — November 2018 was quite a bit colder than normal, and just slightly wetter than normal in Sheldon.
The highest high recorded this past November was 59 degrees, on both November 2nd and 23rd. That high of 59 on the 23rd was one degree off the record of 60, set on that date in 2006. The lowest high last month was November 18th, with 21 degrees.
The lowest low recorded this past November was recorded on three separate days — on November 18th, 27th, and 28th, with five degrees above zero. That’s not close to a record, as the records on all those dates are below zero.
The all-time record low for the month is -20, set on November 14th, 1959. The all-time record high for the month is 77 degrees, which was set on November 8th and 9th in 1931 and 1999, respectively.
The average high for November 2018 was 37, and the average low was 17. Add those together and divide by two and you have the average temperature for the month, 27 degrees. The average normal high is 45 and low is 24, for a normal average temp of 34.5, so November 2018 was quite a bit colder than normal. Last year was much closer to normal with an average high of 45 and an average low of 21, for an average temp of 33.
We received a half an inch of snow on both November 9th and November 17th. Normal monthly snowfall is 3.3 inches. So this November we received 2.3 inches less than normal. On the season, by the end of the month of November, we normally have 4.3 inches. This season, we had only had 2.5 inches by that time, 1.8 inches less than normal.
However, on precip as a whole in 2018, we’re still well above normal. Normal precip from January to the end of November is 26.65 inches. This year by that time we had already had 48.19 inches, which is 21.54 inches above normal. We received some rain on November 2nd and again the 4th through the 6th, and a little bit on November 29th. On the 2nd we got one one-hundredth of an inch. On the 4th, we had 55-hundredths, with 6-hundredths on the 5th and 38-hundredths on the 6th. On the 29th, we had 2-hundredths. Add that to the three-hundredths and four-hundredths of an inch from melted snow on the 9th and 17th, and that’s our total of 1.09 for the month. Normal November precip is 0.98, so that’s only 0.11 more than normal.
