SPRING-LIKE NOVEMBER: WARM SPELL HAS FOOLED MANY PLANTS

The unseasonably warm weather doesn't make it feel much like the start of December, but the final month of the year has arrived.

November has been warmer than normal, said local climatologist Dr. Al Robertson. For the month, temperatures averaged 49.5 degrees. Historically, the average is 46.7 degrees.

November has been so warm that it has tricked many flowers and shrubs into blooming. There have been only a few light frosts and no killing freezes this fall.

Rain dampened the start of the week Monday, but mild conditions prevailed. November started with a high of 71 and low of 54 and ended almost the same way, with highs near 70 and a low of 59 on Monday.

And there was a lot of pleasant weather in between.

Robertson, a retired Southeast Missouri State University professor, said the previous three years were slightly cooler than normal. Last year the average for November was 42.1 degrees. It was 42.2 degrees in 1996 and 42.6 degrees in 1995.

The last 10 days have been unusually warm for this time of year, Robertson said. "To have over a week of over 60 degrees is phenomenal."

On Thanksgiving Day, the high temperature was 67. It reached 70 degrees on Friday and 69 degrees on both Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday's temperature broke the record of 68 degrees, Robertson said.

Robertson said a direct flow of the jet stream from west to east has prevented cooler Canadian air from reaching the region.

With Monday's rain showers, total precipitation for the month should approach 3 inches, Robertson said. That would be slightly below the average of 3.8 inches.

The weather has been great for farmers.

"It has allowed some farmers to get fall field work done," said Gerald Bryan, a University of Missouri Extension agronomist at Jackson. "They're getting some things done, including land leveling and grading for drainage."

Farmers are also adding organic matter to soils, hoping to more effectively use fertilizer dollars, said Bryan. "In other words, they're getting some things done that they normally wouldn't be doing because of cold and rainy conditions."

The warm weather hasn't been particularly kind to hunters.

With warmer weather, Canada geese are not traveling too far south, and as hunters looked to the goose season last week in the Southern Illinois Quota Zone of Alexander, Union, Williamson and Jackson counties, scarcely 15,000 geese were in the area. Usually by this time of year, the same area will have up to 100,000 Canadas.

Meanwhile, mosquitoes were plentiful in the Bootheel area of Missouri. Deer hunters reported finding plenty of deer along with some large mosquitoes. Mosquitoes usually abound in the Bootheel in June, July and August but disappear by late September.

More rain is in the forecast for Thursday or Friday, but today's outlook was for clear skies and more temperatures in the 50s and 60s with lows in the mid-40s.