As far as temperatures go, October in Berks County unfolded just as it should with warm temperatures to start — a couple of 80-degree days — and chill increasingly setting in as the month wound to a conclusion.

As far as rainfall goes, well, things started well enough, but the tap shut off at midmonth soon after Berks was elevated from a drought warning to a drought watch by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

“The highlight (for October) by far was the passage of post-tropical rainstorm Isaias during Sunday the 11th,” said Jeffrey R. Stoudt, retired meteorologist and founder of the Berks Area Rainfall Networks.

Berks went three weeks without rain from Oct. 16 to Nov. 5, and the two-day total for the 5th and 6th was a paltry 0.08 inch at Reading Regional Airport, the official National Weather Service site in Berks.

The Commonwealth Drought Task Force hasn’t met since Oct. 2. No date for the next meeting was available, but typically it is once a month or thereabouts.

The good side of the dry three weeks was that the days were sparkling, with sunny skies, chilly mornings and pleasant afternoons. But it might have been too much of a good thing.

The next opportunity for precipitation is Thursday night through Saturday, with the word “snow” even creeping into the weather service forecast.

At the airport, the annual precipitation total is just below 30 inches, about 10 inches below normal. The deficit for the county as a whole is nowhere near that bad, with an annual total of 35.5 inches.

The county total is developed by a subsidiary of the weather service and includes numerous stations plus the airport, and a hydrologist looks over the whole statistical picture.

“Isaias 2026 … delivered 1.5 to 3.0 inches of rain to Berks County, the great majority of the whole month’s rain,” Stoudt added.  “Scattered locations got around a half inch from scattered thunderstorms on the 16th, but most got less or much less. The final total October precipitation at (the airport) came to 1.87 inches, which was near the bottom in Berks County. However, all of Berks totaled slightly to substantially subnormal in precipitation and ranged from 1.8 to 3.3 inches.”

On the temperature side, Stoudt said, “unusual heat and cold were absent. While many mornings were frosty at many low-lying areas, temperatures a few hundred feet aloft remained mild. And those shallow chills were followed by strong rebounds to the 60s or low 70s later those same days. … The first official freeze for the Reading area … came at daybreak of the 18th, a week earlier than average, with a 32, and was followed by a 31 on the 25th to mark this October’s lowest.”

50 years ago

A half-century ago during the bicentennial, Berks County suffered through coldest October on record, and it still is the coldest. They were about to suffer through the coldest November, which also still is.

That October averaged 46.4 degrees, 10.2 degrees colder than the October that just ended, and 2.2 degrees colder than No. 2 on the 10-coldest Octobers list from 1925.

November was a bone-chilling 35.0 degrees, fairly normal for a current December, and 2.6 degrees colder than No. 2 on the 10-coldest Novembers list from 1901.

October 1976 still holds a total of 10 date records for coldest highs and lows. That November still holds six date records.

Spring 1976 saw a heat wave in April, then the weather went south, or maybe north, soon after that. The year ended as one of the five coldest on record in a Berks temperature database nearly 13 decades long.

The 10-coldest Octobers list has been undisturbed since 1993 and the 10-coldest Novembers since 1996. The weather of the 1970s and ’80s was among the coldest times overall in the Berks database.

You won’t find any months from the those decades on a 10-warmest list of any month, though two are lurking near the 10-warmest Octobers and one the 10-warmest Decembers.

October weather in Berks

• Temperature: 56.6 degrees

• Normal: 55.2 degrees

• Precipitation: 1.87 inches

• Normal: 3.80 inches

• Records: None

Source: National Weather Service

Rainfall amounts from the Berks Area Rainfall Networks in inches:

• Shartlesville, 3.32

• Auburn, 3.30

• Hamburg, 3.03

• Birdsboro, 2.99

• New Morgan, 2.94

• Strausstown, 2.93

• Wernersville, 2.91

• Bernville, 2.90

• Mohnton, 2.85

• Elverson NE, 2.81

• Mohrsville SW, 2.80

• Shillington, 2.69

• Reading E, 2.67

• Lincoln Park, 2.64

• Mohrsville, 2.64

• Boyers Junction, 2.62

• Quaker Hill, 2.55

• Cornwall Terrace, 2.51

• Henningsville, 2.51

• Frystown, 2.49

• West Reading, 2.39

• Jacksonwald, 2.37

• Topton, 2.37

• Bechtelsville NW, 2.25

• Muhlenberg Park, 2.25

• Reiffton, 2.25

• Dryville, 2.24

• Oley, 2.23

• Greenfields, 2.16

• Womelsdorf, 2.13

• Lobachsville, 1.99