November was slightly warmer than average with less snow than normal

Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Cuyahoga Valley National Park(Samantha Roberts, Meteorologist)
Published: Dec. 1, 2022 at 7:10 PM EST
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CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - It may not have felt like it at times but November was warmer than normal.

The average temperature at Cleveland Hopkins in November was 45.4 degrees, which is 1.4 degrees above average.

Several days early in the month with high temperatures in the upper 60s and lower 70s contributed to this.

The warmest temperature Cleveland recorded last month was 77 degrees on November 5th, which is the record high temperature for that date, and it’s 21 degrees above normal for early-November.

On November 5th, Cleveland also reported a record high minimum temperature of 63 degrees; that’s an exceptionally warm evening for late-Fall.

Akron also experienced a warmer-than-normal November.

The average temperature last month was 45.3 degrees, which is 2.8 degrees above normal.

Akron’s warmest day was November 5th, with a record high temperature of 78 degrees.

All major climate reporting sites in our area reported record high temperatures that day!

November was also drier than normal.

Cleveland only accumulated 2.46 inches of precipitation.

A typical November brings about 3.37 inches of precipitation, some of which is snow.

As the headline implies, much of northeast Ohio was in a bit of a snow drought in last month.

At Cleveland Hopkins, only 1.8 inches of snow fell.

What would be considered normal snowfall for November in Cleveland? 4.5 inches.

Akron experienced a slightly damper-than-normal November, accumulating 3.26 inches of precipitation, but not much of that was snow.

Akron’s November 2022 snowfall total will go on the books as 1.9 inches, which is 1.4 inches below normal.

If you’re reading this from a Snow Belt community, you may be rolling your eyes at the writer citing below-normal snow.

Living up to its name, portions of the Snow Belt, especially Lake and Ashtabula counties, experienced several rounds of lake effect snow last month.

[NWS: Over 17 inches of snow in 12-hour span recorded in part of Northeast Ohio]

Heavy lake effect snow piled up to over a foot in some areas, with Monroe Center (Ashtabula County) reporting 17.2 inches in just a 12-hour timespan.

[Crashes, lake effect snow close I-90 for hours in Ashtabula County]

Travel was extremely difficult as the snow was moving through, and in the hours after the snow fell.

[ODOT reduces I-90 speeds in Lake County due to road conditions]

November is one of the months in which lake effect snow in most prevalent, due in part to the fact that Lake Erie is still somewhat warmer and ice-free.

Thanks to the significantly warmer-than-normal temperatures we experienced early in the month, the water temperature off Cleveland remained in the 50s well into November.

That warmer-than-normal water actually helped fuel the extraordinary lake effect snowstorm our friends in Buffalo endured last month.

Of course, the wind direction kept northern Ohio from experiencing more significant, widespread lake effect snow last month, but the snow we did accumulate gave us just a brief preview of the Winter to come.

[19 First Alert Meteorologists deliver Winter Weather Forecast]

That’s right!

Our 19 First Alert Weather Team is forecasting slightly above-normal snow this Winter, and below-normal temperatures for December and January.