By Bonnie Boyd
Although BYU campus experienced strong gusts of winds and rain Monday, Utah is on average experiencing a warmer November than what is considered normal according to the Utah National Weather service.
Salt Lake City, where Utah?s National Weather service is located, is recording higher than average temperatures.
November temperature graphs show an average of 55 to 25 degrees is expected during this time of year, according to the National Weather service. This Monday, the coolest day seen so far, was only 30 degrees.
The first 15 days of November last year recorded seven days with lower than normal temperatures. The whole month of November in 2000 averaged temperatures around the 20s. In comparison, only one day this November has been slightly cooler than what weather forecasters call normal.
?Up until yesterday [Monday] we had been running above normal,? said Brandon Smith, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City. ?So far in November the average temperature was six degrees above normal.?
Every year the National Weather service records how long it takes to reach the season?s first freezing temperature in Utah. They also count the days between the last freeze of spring to the first freeze of winter.
With Utah experiencing freezing temperature in Salt Lake City Saturday, the running-day count is finished. This year marks 220 days with no record of freezing temperatures in Utah, Smith said.
?We had our third latest freeze day this year,? Smith said. ?We were just two days shy of 1988s latest freeze ever, November 16th.?
Strong gusts of wind were also experienced from Mondays storm. At 11,000 feet in the Southern Wasatch, winds of 106 mph were recorded by the Utah National Weather service.
Nov. 13 has been calculated as the average date that snow hits the Utah Valley floor. Monday?s storm brought 14 inches of snow to Alta and 15 inches to the Snowbird base.
However, the storm did not bring enough snow to the resorts for skiers and snowboarders to start for the mountains quite yet.
?Right now we have a crew out assessing the situation,? said Laura Schaffer, director of public relations for Snowbird Resort. ?We like to aim to open up the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and nine out of 10 times we?ve been able to do that.?
This week?s storm brought no snow to Sundance Resort, but they are still scheduled to open December 9.
