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October turned out to be a very cold month across the region, relatively speaking.  Places such as Cheyenne, Scottsbluff and Chadron recorded their coldest Octobers on record.  It was the second coldest October on record in places such as Laramie, Rawlins and Sidney.  The month featured two significant snowstorms that combined to produce the greatest October snowfall total ever recorded in Cheyenne, with a total snowfall of 28 inches there.  

The overall average October temperature in Cheyenne for the entire month was 37.0 degrees.  This just edged out the previous lowest average temperature of 37.1 degrees which occurred in 1969.  For Scottsbluff, Nebraska the average October temperature was 40.5 degrees, which broke the previous record of 40.8 degrees set in 1925.  Chadron, Nebraska also set a new record lowest average October temperature with 40.0 degrees, breaking their old record of 40.8 degrees in October 2002.

Does this mean anything for the upcoming winter?  Not necessarily.  There is no real correlation between a cold fall and a cold winter.  The current existance of El Nino actually tends to bring an increased chance for warmer than average wintertime temperatures to this region.  Below is the latest temperature and precipitation outlook for November:

                               November 2009 Temperature Outlook

                                 November 2009 Precipitation Outlook

For this region, the maps depict that there is about a 35 to 40 per cent chance that November will turn out to be warmer than average.  On the other hand, that means that there is still about a 27 to 32 percent chance that it would be colder than average.  There is no significant signal for precipitation, thus there are equal chances for above, near, or below average precipitation in this region.