East Central Florida - Tuesday November 7, 2023: A stalled front that led to a wetter end to September continued to produce heavy rainfall, especially along the coastal counties of east central Florida into the 1st day of October before finally shifting south of the region.
Additional frontal passages occurred into the rest of the month, but despite a brief increase in showers and storms toward mid-month, much of the rest of October was mostly drier than normal.
This was especially true for the second half of the month, where little to no precipitation occurred across the region.
Some notable cool downs occurred during October, especially with a stronger cold frontal passage during mid-month. However, any periods of below normal temperatures were rather short-lived and balanced out by near to above normal temperatures through the remainder of the month. This led to average temperature values for October that were generally within a degree of normal.
Temperatures
Temperatures remained near to above normal during the first several days of the month, even as a stalled frontal boundary across the area on the 1st shifted south. Highs remained in the 80s with lows in the 70s.
A cold front then moved through early on the 8th, and did drop highs into the mid to upper 70s across northern portions of east central Florida, with lows dropping into the 60s across the area. However, this slight drop in temperatures was short lived as the front shifted back northward as a warm front on the 11th, with highs back in the mid to upper 80s and even low to mid 90s in some spots on the 12th and 13th.
Vero Beach actually reached 94 degrees on the 12th, which tied their record warmest maximum temperature for the month of October.
A stronger cold front then moved through on the 15th, ushering in the coolest air for the month. This led to highs as low as the low to mid 70s on the 16th and 17th, which tied or broke a handful of lowest maximum temperature records across the area. Minimum temperatures fell as low as the 50s for a few days following this frontal passage. A gradual warming trend then took hold for the remainder of the month, with highs once again rising into the 80s and lows generally ranging from the mid 60s to low 70s.
The balance of brief cool downs and periods of warmer than normal temperatures led to average temperatures for October that ended up close to normal. Monthly average temperature departures ranged from 1.1 degrees below normal at Leesburg and 0.6 degrees above normal at Fort Pierce. This continuing trend of closer to normal temperatures during the fall season has allowed January to October average temperatures to drop in the warmest year to date rankings. While it is still the warmest year on record to date for Daytona Beach and Fort Pierce, 2023 so far is now either 2nd, 3rd or 4th warmest for the remainder of the primary climate sites across east central Florida.
Rainfall
A stalled front lingered across the area during the first of the month, focusing heavy rainfall from slow moving storms and persistent onshore moving rain bands along the east central Florida coastal counties. While totals of 2 to 3 inches were common from this heavier precipitation, localized higher totals of 5 to 7 inches occurred across some spots of Brevard County and the Treasure Coast leading to flooding of numerous roadways and poor drainage areas. This front finally shifted south of the area by the 2nd, with a period of scattered and lighter onshore moving showers across the area through the 5th.
Drier conditions then generally followed, especially as a cold front moved through early on the 8th. However, showers and storms increased toward mid-month as this boundary shifted northward as a warm front on the 11th, stalled to the north, and then shifted back through as a cold front a few days later. Drier than normal conditions then prevailed for the second half of the month with little to no rainfall occurring across the area from the 14th through the 31st. Any accumulating precipitation during this period generally only amounted to a tenth of an inch or less.
With the majority of precipitation for the month only occurring from the stalled front on the 1st or from the passing warm front toward mid-month, the predominant drier conditions led to rainfall for October that was generally below normal for much of the area. Monthly rainfall totals typically ranged from 1 to 3 inches across the interior, and 3 to 5 inches along the coast. However, locally higher amounts up to 6 to 10 inches did occur across portions of Brevard County and the Treasure Coast. This led to some smaller areas of above normal rainfall across this region.
Below is a list of observed precipitation totals and rainfall statistics for select sites across east central Florida for October 2023:
*Rainfall totals for the month end around 7 AM on the 31st.
For more local climate information, please visit our web page at http://weather.gov/mlb and click on the "Climate" icon toward the bottom of the page.