In summary: Dry, warm than seasonal.
From the National Weather Service:A warm start then seasonable finish to November 2009…
November 2009 started out on a warm and dry note across the Mojave Desert and southern Great Basin. Daytime highs reached into the 70s across the southern Great Basin during the first 6 days of the month while in the Mojave Desert were mainly in the 80s to even the 90s during the first 6 days of the month before dropping into the mid 70s to lower 80s through the 10th.
During the later two-thirds of the month several systems moved across the area. Although these systems were moisture starved… two of them managed to generate precipitation. Both of these instances were systems that had just enough moisture to work with… and combined with good forcing or vertical motion associated with the systems themselves to produce precipitation.
… Las Vegas…
The preliminary average temperature for November at McCarran International Airport was 59.2 degrees. This makes November 2009 the 5th warmest on record. The warmest novembers on record at Las Vegas are…
1. 60.9 degrees in 2007
2. 60.8 degrees in 2008
3. 59.8 degrees in 1995
4. 59.3 degrees in 2005
5. 59.2 degrees in 2009 +++
6. 58.9 degrees in 1949
7. 58.8 degrees in 1999
8. 58.6 degrees in 2001
9. 58.4 degrees in 2006
10. 58.0 degrees in 1976 and 1981
There were five days at McCarran with a high temperature at or above 80 degrees during November 2009… with the warmest being 83 degrees on the 5th. This streak of five days tied for the third greatest such streak on record entirely within November.
The average low temperature was 48.3 degrees for the month and this ranks as the 4th warmest on record and was largely responsible for the overall warm temperatures this month. The warmest low temperature this month at McCarran was 62 degrees on the 6th and this tied the all-time record high minimum temperature for the month of November.
Despite the warmth this month… there were some chilly mornings in the middle to later part of the month. The coldest morning at McCarran was on the 16th when the low dropped to 39 degrees. The first freezing temperatures of the season were reported in outlying parts of the Las Vegas Valley that morning… with a low of 32 degrees reported at both Henderson Executive Airport and Nellis Air Force base.
Precipitation for the month totaled 0.02 inch at McCarran which was 0.29 inch below normal. There were a total of 3 days where precipitation fell. The 0.02 inch that fell on the 28th was the first measurable precipitation to fall at McCarran since August 22nd. Elsewhere in the valley rainfall was also below normal and although amounts varied there was not a substantial variation in totals. The area seeing the most rainfall this month was just along tropicana Boulevard from near Interstate 15 eastward where a few hundredths of an inch fell. The total precipitation at the National Weather Service office was 0.05 inch while the North Las Vegas Airport was a trace. While gusty winds were felt at times during the month at the Airport… they were most pronounced on the west side of the valley where gusts over 40 mph were felt especially on the 12th and 21st.
… Elsewhere…
Precipitation was below normal across all of the area. The system that moved through on November 12th through the 13th brought precipitation to most areas except the deserts of San Bernardino County and southern Mohave County. This system brought the first measurable snow of the season to the Spring Mountains of southern Nevada and left the peak of Mount Charleston whitened for the first time this season. The next system to bring precipitation moved through from late on the 27th through the morning of th 29th. This system brought the first measurable precipitation since the monsoon to the San Bernardino County deserts and Colorado River valley and dropped over a foot of snow in the eastern Sierra with as much as 6 inches estimated in the mountains above 6000 feet near Dyer Nevada. However some parts of the area still so no precipitation at all this month such as Diamond M. Ranch in eastern Mohave County.
The highest temperature for the month included 94 degrees at Wikieup on the 2nd… 91 degrees at Lake Havasu City on the 5th… 89 degrees at Laughlin on the 3rd and 5th… and 89 degrees at Overton on the 5th. The lowest temperature this month at an official climate station was 7 degrees at Spring Valley State Park in Nevada on the 20th.
The notable wind event this month was a strong downslope wind event in the eastern Sierra and western Owens Valley of California on the evening of November 20th. Wind gusts as high as 72 mph were recorded just west of Independence and power outages and tree limbs were downed in Big Pine.
The above information is preliminary and is subject to a final review before being certified by the National climatic data center.
