You don’t need me to tell you that last month was unusually cold.  But now that the month has ended, we can say just how cold it was.  Last month’s average high temperature was just 55.3 degrees, a full seven degrees colder than the long term (30 year) average.  Deviations of a couple of degrees from the long term average is considered substantial, so to be a full seven degrees off is incredible.

Low temperatures weren’t nearly as cold, thanks largely to the abundant cloud cover we had most of the month.  Clouds typically keep temperatures up a little at night, so cloudy nights should be a little warmer.  Even so, last month’s average low — 40.2 degrees — is a couple of degrees colder than the long term average. 

The temperature wasn’t the only unusual thing about last month’s weather in West Michigan.  We also were shorted on the sunshine…by a lot!  Typically, we see about 55% of the available sunshine in the month of October.  But last month, we managed to see just 22%.  Of course, lack of sunshine goes hand in hand with colder daytime temperatures, so that makes sense.

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