Your StormTracker 59 team goes back into the weather files to highlight some of the most impactful weather of the month.

Temperatures in October

The month of October began toasty but we oscillated back and forth between warmer and cooler air masses throughout the month. The beginning of the month featured our warmest temperatures, with three days in a row of highs at 79 degrees from October 2nd through the 4th.

However, a much cooler airmass arrived for the second week of October and this pattern mostly lasted through the third week of October. Some subtle warm-ups occurred but this period from the first to third months was mostly below average in temperature. A big warming trend occurred in the last week of the month until Halloween, when a strong front crashed temperatures to below normal levels once again for the Halloween holiday itself, bringing the chill to trick-or-treaters.

• Warmest High Temperature: 79 degrees (October 2nd, 3rd and 4th)
• Coolest High Temperature: degrees (September 24th and 25th)
• Coolest Low Temperature: degrees (September 15th)
• Warmest Low Temperature: 62 degrees (October 29th)

Rainfall in October

October was a dry month overall, with many areas only seeing about half of what is typical for the month. Beckley came in a little over an inch below normal at 1.64 inches. Less than a half of an inch of rain fell in Beckley during the first half of October.

Nearly half of the month’s rain fell on October 20th. Despite the dry month overall, October 2023 was nowhere near even the top 10 driest Octobers on record. 10th place on that list occurred in 1997 with 0.89″.

• Wettest Day: 0.62″ (October 20th)

Halloween 2023

Halloween was a very chilly day for the trick-or-treaters, with a high temperature of only 45 degrees. That was the coldest Halloween we’ve seen in the last 10 years and the fifth coldest in the last sixty years – needless to say, it was bone-chilling! Our average high temperature on Halloween is 59 degrees. Very light sprinkle activity occurred early during the day, resulting in 0.01″ of rain falling. That was the fifth Halloween with rain in the last ten years and three years straight with rain.

Full Moon – Harvest Moon

October’s full moon featured the Hunter’s Moon on October 28th. Skies were mostly cloudy but high school football games on October 27th created a wonderful display with mostly clear skies as high schoolers scrambled to zigzag their ways to first downs under the bright full moon.

October 2023 Weather in Photos with #WeatherTogether

Here are a few photos highlighting some of the weather experienced in the two Virginias in October 2023!

What is #WeatherTogether?

Launched late last year, #WeatherTogether is a dedicated community photo album hosted by 59News and StormTracker 59 to allow viewers to submit weather photos directly to us that we can share on all our platforms on-air or online. These photos are also showcased in our web-based photo album on our site for all to see and enjoy! Any photo of interesting weather, storm damage, snowfall, pets playing in puddles or snow and the likes are all welcomed! We hope to use this to showcase the beauty of the two Virginias through the eyes of our viewers and the vastly dynamic weather we see because we think there is no place more beautiful than here.

See for yourself the collection of photos already submitted or submit a few of your own, here.