Extreme Temperatures
Snowpack extent in US reaches record levels!
America's first Arctic air blast of the season broke hundreds of low temperature records and led to the largest snowpack extent there in early November in NOAA records.
A high snowpack blanketed the Rocky Mountains, northern Plains, Great Lakes and northern New England, resulting in 17.9% of the Lower 48 under a blanket of snow as the calendar turned to November - a new record in the books dating back to 2003.
Many places recorded their snowiest Halloweens ever.
At 22 inches, Muskegon, MI, not only recorded the snowiest Halloween ever, but also the snowiest October day and month. Glasgow, MT, recorded the snowiest start to the season with 36 inches.
The cold broke hundreds of low temperature records across the country, from Texas to Maine, dropping the average temperature in the Lower 48 to -0.5°C - more than 5 degrees Celsius below normal.

East of Anchorage, Richardson Highway over Thompson Pass (MP 19-63) was closed due to heavy snowfall and wind from the storm.
The largest city in Alaska broke its daily snowfall record on Wednesday when 9 inches of snow fell in 24 hours. For context, the previous record for Nov. 8 was 7.3 inches set in 1982. Another 8.2 inches piled up on Thursday, which also broke the daily record of 7.1 inches set on Nov. 9, 1956. That brought Anchorage's two-day total to 17.2 inches of snow.
By late Thursday, Anchorage had a 21-inch snow depth, or the total amount of snow on the ground. This was Anchorage's greatest snow depth for so early in the season, according to Alaska-based climatologist Brian Brettschneider. Already, 26.6 inches of snow has fallen in Anchorage this season, which is 17.5 inches above the average snowfall to date for Nov. 9.
"Around 60 of the country's territory has so far been covered by snow. Our country is expected to experience a harsh winter," the agency said in a statement.
Over the last weekend, heavy snow and blizzards hit large parts of Mongolia, killing eight herders.
Mongolia's climate is strongly continental with long, frigid winters and short summers. A temperature of minus 25 degrees Celsius is normal during winter in the country.
In places 1m of snow fell with the freezing level down to 1,500m in some areas.
There is now a lull in proceedings with more snow forecast for Thursday.
It is looking good at altitude and the snow on the upper slopes will help to form a base for the approaching season.
Many resort are now moving the snow and packing it down.

A snow removal vehicle cleans snow on a road in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, Nov. 6, 2023.
Major highways in the northeastern city of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, were closed and flights canceled, China's state broadcaster CCTV said. Elementary and middle schools also canceled classes for Monday.
The National Meteorological Center said Monday that snowfall is likely to "breakthrough the historical records" for the same period. Heavy snowstorms are expected to continue in parts of Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, with snow depth reaching 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) in some places.
Snow and blizzards swept the western provinces of Zavkhan and Uvs and central parts of the country including the national capital Ulaanbaatar, and provinces of Arkhangai, Uvurkhangai, Tuv and Bulgan, with wind speeds up to 20 meters per second.
The southern provinces of Dundgovi and Dornogovi, the eastern provinces of Khentii and Sukhbaatar, and the northern provinces of Khuvsgul and Darkhan-Uul also experienced strong winds and snow storms.
Volatile weather is expected to continue in the coming days across large parts of the country, the agency said, warning the public, especially nomadic herders and drivers, to take extra precautions against possible disasters.
The Asian country's climate is strongly continental with long, frigid winters and short, warm summers.

Wind velocity and streamlines at an altitude of about 10 kilometers above the Earth's surface on the onset of a Western Europe heat wave (23 August 2016).
"There are various theories as to what we can expect from the jet stream in future. However, these are all based on highly idealized assumptions," said Dr. Georgios Fragkoulidis of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). "Although it is quite clear that carbon dioxide emissions make a direct contribution to the global mean temperature, changes in the atmospheric circulation are highly uncertain due to the chaotic processes that govern its evolution."
On Wednesday morning, snow was on the ground in 17.9 percent of the Lower 48, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Locations from eastern Minnesota to western New York saw snow on Halloween — even enough to shovel in Minneapolis; Milwaukee; Muskegon, Mich.; and Buffalo. Areas downwind of Lakes Erie and Ontario were also blanketed early Wednesday, including Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, while several inches were anticipated along some of the west-facing slopes of the Appalachian Mountains.
This latest batch of wintry weather comes on the heels of two other storm systems that brought snow to the Mountain West, the northern Plains, the Midwest and northern New England over the past week.

A winter storm on Oct. 26-27, 2023, halted the soybean harvest in areas of North Dakota.
A winter storm that moved across the northern Plains on Oct. 26-27 dumped as much as 18 inches of snow in the Walsh County, North Dakota, town of Lankin, according to the National Weather Service office in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Other double digit amounts were 14 inches in Washburn and Harvey and 11 inches, in Minot and Williston. Further east, Leeds reported 8 inches and Larimore and Grafton reported 8.5 inches.
Low temperatures plummeted into the teens in the snow-covered areas after the storm and daily highs remained below freezing for several days the next week.
Meanwhile, some areas of North Dakota and northwest Minnesota in which temperatures were too warm for snow to develop, received rain, delaying harvest of the row crops.
Comment: Eight women herders killed in Mongolia due to snow storms