It’s finally beginning to feel a lot like fall across the eastern half of the nation.
“Cool, fall-like temperatures will remain over the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi River over the next couple of days, as a large closed low in the upper levels of the atmosphere remains situated over southeastern Canada, just north of the Great Lakes,” wrote the NWS Weather Prediction Center.
High temperatures will range between 10 and 20 degrees below average for this time of year from the Great Lakes to the Mid-Atlantic to the Southeast. Overnight temperatures will dip towards freezing, so it’s time to bring in the plants or cover the last of the vegetables in the garden.
The NWS even issued a Freeze Watch for northeastern Minnesota.
The West Coast will also feel a chill after the next big coast-to-coast storm moves through early this week. San Francisco Bay Area temperatures will go from record highs over the weekend to 10 to 20 degrees below average. Northern California and coastal Oregon may need to turn the heat in the house on with high temperatures 20 to 30 degrees below average by Tuesday.
“The arrival of a Pacific cold front will bring colder temperatures and rain for locations extending from northern California to western Washington starting Monday morning,” stated the WPC in the discussion. “Cooler temperatures will spread from west to east into the Great Basin behind a cold front for Monday into Tuesday, but warm weather with highs in the mid-70s to mid-80s will remain for locations just east of the Continental Divide into the Central Plains.”
So, summer hasn’t called it quits for everyone just yet.
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“It’s going to be a wild ride in the temperature department this week as the nation will be split between hot and cold,” said the FOX Forecast Center. “Many locations across the Eastern U.S. will stay well below average for most of the week, while the Rockies will heat up once again Monday through Wednesday. In a near repeat of last week, another strong front is expected to sweep across nearly the entire U.S. late this week.”
A sweater alert goes out to the Great Lakes and Northeast for the early part of the week with lows in the 40s. By Wednesday, another shot of cold air drops into the U.S. behind a cold front in the Northern Plains and Midwest, dropping low temperatures into the 30s.
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“This a welcome stop to that summer feel as we turn over the page into the fall season. We stick with that comfortable feel on through the start of the workweek,” said Meteorologist Jane Minar. “High temperatures not even breaking out of the fifties for the Great Lakes, forties for Duluth. So I hope we’ve got the heavier coats, maybe those bulkier sweaters, as we head through the workweek.
“Tuesday into Wednesday, slowly warmer temperatures begin to jump on the board,” she continued. Indianapolis, we’re pushing the upper sixties. Same thing for New York City, but the Great Lakes hold on to some of that chill this fall.”
She reminds everyone to check out their heaters before turning them on for the first time this season.
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Even the sweltering South will feel a bit of cooler, drier air for a couple of days.
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“This is a drier air that’s in the area. They will see some more moisture come back into the forecast, and that’s later part of this next upcoming week,” said Meteorologist Haley Meier. “And that’ll be helpful in terms of rainfall along the coast here. But overall, the temperatures, I think we’ve just about kicked the nineties out of here. We’re no longer really talking about that as far as the Southeast goes.”
In the West, we have a battle between fall and summer this October. The coast will cool dramatically with a new storm dropping in.
As that storm energy crosses the Rockies, it will re-form and develop a warm front. That front will draw summery temperatures back into the Plains.
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“Overall, we have this big dip in the jet stream. We’ve been kind of stuck in this wavy pattern that brings in these storm systems,” Minar said. “This low is going to come out of the Rockies. It’s going to transfer up towards the Great Lakes. And as that low continues to come together, we get this warm front that lifts up the north-northeastern seaboard.”
“So, we see this surge of warmer air that starts to arrive towards the later half of this week. You’ll feel it. Cold front is going to sweep its way through. But as this low pulls in, heads up that storm that’s starting on the West Coast to begin the week will close the East Coast with rain,” she continued.