November in Nevada was uneventful, weather wise

Sandra Chereb

Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1998 | 2:46 a.m.

RENO, Nev. -- Besides a day of strong winds that toppled signs, blew out windows and downed power lines, November's weather was pretty blah, State Climatoligist John James said Tuesday.

Overall, last month was a little warmer and drier than normal, but the deviations from average were measured in 1 or 2 temperature degrees and only fractions of precipitation amounts, James said.

"It was a pretty boring month," he said.

The most noteworthy event was the strong winds on the 23rd, which reached a sustained speed of 154 mph at a National Weather Service facility in a remote sensing facility in the mountains northeast of Reno, James said.

That storm buffeted the Reno area with winds to 89 mph. The wind shattered windows, blew down trees and left as much as one-third of the Reno-Sparks area without power for a time.

In the Sierra, gusts to 120 mph combined with heavy snow forced the closure of Interstate 80.

But other than that, November's weather was ho-hum.

November's average temperature in Reno was 42.8 degrees, 2.5 degrees above normal, James said. Precipitation totaled 0.77 inches, 0.10 of an inch below normal.

In Las Vegas, last month's average temperature was 54.8 degrees - two-tenths of a degree below normal. The 33-hundredths of an inch of moisture amounted to one-tenth of an inch below normal.

Elko's temperature averaged 36.8 degrees, or 1 degree above normal. The 0.77 inches of moisture was 0.34 of an inch below normal.

Ely, too, was on the balmy side, averaging 36.6 degrees, or 2.4 degrees above normal. Precipitation totaled 0.54 inches, or 0.13 of an inch below normal.

Temperatures also averaged 1.1 degrees above normal in Winnemucca, where precipitation of 0.89 inches was 0.05 of an inch below normal, James said.

Statewide, temperatures ranged from near zero in northeast Nevada to near 80 along the Colorado River in the south.