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Widespread Precipitation and Snow Across the Pacific Northwest; Heavy Rain and Severe Thunderstorms Across the Central and Southern U.S.

Widespread precipitation is expected across the Northwest and northern Rockies through Monday, including heavy mountain snow for parts of the region. A powerful storm is expected to bring periods of heavy rain, gusty winds, and the potential for severe thunderstorms throughout the southern to central Plains between tonight and Monday. Read More >

Thanks to the month as a whole being dominated by ridge of high pressure aloft, Sep. 2015 finished solidly within the Top 5-10 warmest on record across much of the NWS Hastings coverage area of South Central Nebraska/North Central Kansas (see depature-from-normal image below). Although NWS Hastings collects climate data for dozens of locations across the area, our two "primary" sites for which we issue climate records/statistics for are Grand Island and Hastings airports, for which details follow:
 
 
Grand Island, Central Nebraska Regional Airport: (temperature records date back 120 years to 1896):

- Based on the average daily temperature of 70.7° (meaning an average of the daily highs/lows)...Sep. 2015 was the 7th-warmest September on record out of 120 years dating to 1896.  Following are the Top-7 warmest months of September on record:

1) 75.4°...1931
2) 74.0°... 1933
3) 72.8°... 1897
4) 71.6°... 1998
5) 71.4°... 1925
6) 71.2°... 1921
7) 70.7°... 2015
 
- Although by far the hottest stretch of the month was right off the bat (each of the first six days featured highs ranging from 92-96°), there were several additional notably warm days throughout the remainder of the month as well. In fact, 25 of the 30 days featured an above normal daily average temperature.

- The majority of weight toward the warmer-than-normal month was attributed to low temperatures, which averaged a notable 6.8° above normal. In fact, lows never dropped below 47° during the month...this had only happened one prior time, 17 years ago in 1998.

- Despite September averaging so warm, somewhat oddly, Grand Island did not set any DAILY temperature records along the way.

 




Hastings Municipal Airport: (temperature records date back 108 years to 1907)

- Based on the average daily temperature of 71.8° (meaning an average of the daily highs/lows)...Sep. 2015 was the 5th-warmest September on record out of 108 years dating to 1907.  It was also the warmest in 75 YEARS, since 1940! Following are the Top-5 warmest months of September on record:

1) 74.3°...1931
2) 72.8°... 1933
3) 72.7°... 1939
4) 72.0°... 1940

5) 71.8°... 2015

 
- Although by far the hottest stretch of the month was right off the bat (each of the first six days featured highs ranging from 91-97°), there were several additional notably warm days throughout the remainder of the month as well. In fact, 26 of the 30 days featured an above normal daily average temperature.

- The majority of weight toward the warmer-than-normal month was attributed to low temperatures, which averaged a notable 6.4° above normal. In fact, lows never dropped below 47° during the month...this had only happened four prior times: 1998, 2004, 1963, 1923.

- Despite September averaging so warm, Hastings only featured one DAILY temperature record along the way: Tied the warmest low temperature on record for Sep. 4th (72°).
 

 

Sep. 2015: Regional Temperature Depature-From-Normal (from HPRCC)
 


This page was composed by the staff at the National Weather Service in Hastings, Nebraska.