In their 1992 album, "Use Your Illusion I," Guns N Roses featured a song titled "November Rain" that used the line "cold November rain" as a metaphor for relationship difficulties. The song was written by singer Axl Rose, ran eight-plus minutes, and featured a long guitar solo by lead guitarist Slash.

It is, of course, a reality that any rain that falls in November in these climes is going to be cold. November, like March, is a time when weather vacillates between cold and hot, producing strong winds, violent storms, and wide swings in temperatures. Precipitation in November can be either cold rain or colder snow, depending on the weather making systems at play.

As November drags on, the chance that precipitation will fall as snow increases remarkably. However, weather systems in November move fairly quickly, so within a day or two temperatures can go from warm to freezing to warm.

November is a good time to keep a weather eye out when dressing for a day's activities. What starts as a warm, sunny, almost spring-like day can turn cold and rainy as a front moves across the region—just as it did with the outdoor wedding reception in the music video for "November Rain." Of course, in the video, the wedding reception obviously was not taking place anywhere near here, witness the warm weather attire worn by the actors.

In this temperate climate, November is a month that provides almost the full gamut of weather, but any days with precipitation are going to be relatively cold. The isolated convection storms that bring thundershowers to one side of a street while the other side is dry are long-past events of summer. In November, precipitation is caused by frontal passages, with low pressure systems that ride northeastward along the front.

By November, the sun's angle is low in the sky as the southern hemisphere turns toward the sun. Warmth does not come from direct sunlight, but by residual heat built up in the ground and atmosphere, or the northeastward flow of warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. But as that warm air flows north, humidity increases. A cold front moves in, precipitating moisture from the air, and the low moving along the front adds more moisture to the mix.

Cold November rains can stall over the region, dragging out like Slash's guitar solo.

Generally, colder November snows do not last all that long. This is because snow falls on the colder side of the front, which means the front has moved south of us. The snow that falls in November is on the back side of the low pressure system. As winds revolve counter-clockwise around a low, they bring colder air from the north. The snow does not last as long because the low is moving away from us at that point.

By winter, when colder air is in place, the same lows can produce blizzard conditions because snow falls sooner in the passage of the systems. So while cold November rains and colder November snow storms are not the most pleasant forms of weather we experience in the course of a year, it will get worse when winter sets in.

Metaphoric references to weather in popular music are legion, but few are as specific as the phrase, "the cold November rain." The song comes to mind every November when a front passes and low pressure rides up from the southwest.

Satellite images show the storm as an elongated coma that can extend along nearly the entire Eastern seaboard, and that coma moves off to the northeast and over the Canadian Maritimes after it gets done with us.

The premise of "November Rain" is that like cold November rains, troubles in relationships pass. It's an interesting thought to keep in mind when those cold, gray rainy days occur in November.