handout

Maansi Srivastava

FTWP

The Washington Post

Capitol Snow

us-weather-environment

Contributor

other

TOPSHOT-US-WEATHER-SNOW

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Whether leaderboard ad sticky behavior is disabled

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show expanded byline information on articles

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Show the Balance of Power component on the new Election subnav component

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Enable new Elections subnav on Site pages

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

If true, will use a spoofed user agent to scrape and summarize content from paywalled sources

flip back to old full page reload when new updates come in

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Trump Campaign

Local news, weather, sports, events, restaurants and more

See more on this topic in your recommendations

D.C. region

D.C. region alerts

Local (D.C. area) alerts

What are your thoughts on Washington experiencing its warmest November on record with temperatures reaching the 70s and 80s?

Even though we’re now immersed in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/12/02/dc-weather-forecast-cold/">midwinter-like cold</a>, last month was the warmest November on record in the D.C. area — largely because of a spate of summerlike days early in the month.

November’s warmth helped push 2024 into first place among the warmest years on record for the District.

In the first week of November, it reached 80 degrees or higher three times, including 84 on Nov. 7, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/11/07/dc-record-warm-november-weather/">the highest temperature on record so late in the year.</a>

Although the most abnormally warm weather occurred early in the month, milder-than-normal weather was prevalent until Black Friday, when the weather pattern flipped. Before that, highs reached the 80s three times, the 70s four times and the 60s 13 times.

The month’s average temperature of 55.2 degrees — taking into account both daytime high and nighttime low temperatures — was 5.3 degrees above normal. It surpassed the previous warmest November on record, in 2001, by 0.4 degrees.

The warmth was accompanied by a lack of rain. Just 1.81 inches fell, 1.1 inches less than normal. It was the third-straight drier-than-normal month, and large parts of the region are now <a href="https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/">experiencing severe drought</a>.

Although it was the warmest November on record at Reagan National Airport, the official weather observing site for Washington, it ranked as only the 14th-warmest November in Baltimore (at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport) and third-warmest at Washington Dulles International Airport.

The highest temperature of the month — that 84 degrees on Nov. 7 — was a degree warmer than October’s warmest day this year. A trace of snow fell on Nov. 22,<b> </b>the earliest flakes in a winter season since 2018, when <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-region-hit-with-first-snowfall-of-the-season/2018/11/15/4c685bae-e8d7-11e8-b8dc-66cca409c180_story.html">1.4 inches fell on that Nov. 15</a>. (Nov. 22 was also one of only five cooler-than-normal days during the month.)

Unsurprisingly, the record-warm month featured several calendar-day record highs:

Washington’s high of 83 degrees broke the record of 80 from 2015.

Baltimore’s high of 81 degrees broke the record of 80 from 2015.

Dulles’s high of 83 degrees broke the record of 80 from 2015.

Washington’s high of 84 degrees broke the record of 81 from 2022.

Dulles’s high of 80 degrees broke the record of 79 from 2022.

Washington’s high of 78 degrees tied the record from 1949.

The record-warm and dry weather was linked to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/11/10/warm-november-fall-conditions-east/">above-normal water temperatures in the north-central Pacific Ocean</a> and a developing La Niña climate pattern. Together, these features promoted high pressure in the eastern United States, which kept storms away and resulted in abundant sunshine.

This pattern started to change around Thanksgiving, but it was too late to prevent the monthly record with so many days in the 70s and 80s previously.

The intensity of the warmth is also connected to human-caused climate change and a long-term increase in temperatures in the region. Since 2010, the District has experienced its warmest February (in 2017), March (2012), April (2017), May (2015), June (2010), July (2011) and December (2015). Records date to 1871.

How 2024 so far compares with other years

With the record-warm November, the year-to-date average temperature has now moved past 2012 to be the warmest on record.

But it’s possible this year will fall behind 2012 in its final month because of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/12/02/dc-weather-forecast-cold/">ongoing cold weather</a>. December 2012 was quite mild so the cold weather happening now would need to reverse for this year to keep its position as the warmest ever observed.

Matt Rogers

National Weather Association, Digital Seal of Approval

University of Virginia, BA in environmental science, 1998

University of Wisconsin, MS in atmospheric science, 2000

Jason Samenow is The Washington Post’s weather editor and Capital Weather Gang's chief meteorologist. He earned a master's degree in atmospheric science and spent 10 years as a climate change science analyst for the U.S. government. He holds the Digital Seal of Approval from the National Weather Association.

Jason Samenow

Ian Livingston is a forecaster/photographer and information lead for the Capital Weather Gang. By day, Ian is a defense and national security researcher at a D.C. think tank.

Ian Livingston

the-washington-post

for The Washington Post

For The Washington Post

Climate

Weather

Environment

Climate Lab

Capital Weather Gang

washpost

prism://prism.query/site,/local/weather&limit=15

The inside scoop on weather in the D.C. area and beyond.

Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI.

D.C., Md. & Va.

The Washington Post offers breaking local news, weather and traffic information for the DC, Maryland and Virginia metro areas, plus information about school districts, crime, government, religion, the lottery,restaurant reviews and obituaries.

Average season-to-date snow	0.2"
Average seasonal snow	13.7"
Last year's snow	8"
Record most snow	56.1"
Record least snow	0.1"
See the winter outlook