October is, according to climatological records, the driest month in Central Alabama. But September was the third wettest September on record and that wet trend has spilled over into October.
The Birmingham International Airport, official site for weather records in this area, had 5.57 inches of rain for October as of midnight. Since midnight, an additional 6 tenths of an inch had fallen putting our monthly rainfall at 6.17 inches.
A quick peek at the wettest Octobers shows we are a long way from the top spot which is 11.90 inches in 1995. So the wettest October just like September was produced by a tropical system, and that storm was Opal.
And just like September, should this October enter the top 10, it will be a wet month without the help of tropical storm.
I don’t think there is much doubt that October, 2009, will get into the top 10 wettest months ever. The 10th spot is only 4 hundredths of an inch away, and the forecast has another round of rain possible tomorrow. In fact, the 10th to 4th spots are closely packed with only a little more than an inch separating them. So we could easily move into 5th or 6th or 7th place in the record book with about an inch.
-Brian-
