After highs in the 50s for the last 3 days, we are going to enjoy a nice warm up for the first half of the work week.  Even though Tuesday starts off cold with lows in the mid to lower 30s, look for highs back into the upper 50s to near 60 for Tuesday.

If that is not warm enough for you, how about highs in the mid 60s for Wednesday?   Get out and enjoy it while you can before our next weather system brings us clouds, rain and highs only in the lower 50s for Thursday.

The good thing about the cold mornings is that the hard frost has killed off all the pollen, but the mold spores are holding strong in the high category.

Even though we’ve seen some showers through the area there is still a chance we could see them through the early afternoon. Rainfall amounts should be a tenth of an inch or less for the rest of the day. High temperatures will be near normal today with temperatures in the middle 50s.

Highs will jump a bit tomorrow into the upper 50s, and Wednesday will be a warmest day with highs in the middle 60s.

Another weather system will move through the area Thursday cooling us down into the lower 50s. But right now it looks dry after that through the weekend.

Showers look to linger through early Monday morning.  They will clear out before noon Monday, which is some good news for Trick-or-Treating.  There will still be some lingering cloud cover and temperatures will drop quickly once the sun goes down.

Halloween Forecast

Be sure to wear an extra layer under those costumes!

Our daytime will become pleasant after what was our chilliest morning of the season.  We got as cold as 27° in Fort Wayne!.

However, the sky becomes mostly cloudy today with rain arriving late tonight.  Highs will be in the upper 50s.

Some areas have their trick-or-treat hours today, instead of tomorrow.  To find out if your community is one of them, click here for our listing of times.

Trick-or-Treaters tonight will find temps only as chilly as the upper 40s toward the end of most trick-or-treat hours.  If you get out when trick-or-treat hours start, it will still be in the 50s.

While Futurecast hints at a few late evening showers, the bulk of the rain will move in late tonight, when most of us will be in bed, and will continue through the start of our Monday.

We saw our first flakes today.  Some of you may have wondered how we could have seen those flakes when temperatures were in the 40′s and 50′s.  Here’s a graph that will hopefully help.

Cold Air Above the Surface

Ok this might be a bit confusing, but think of the orange arrow line as a balloon going up and up into the sky.  That balloon is reading the air temperature as it goes up.  Notice when it is near the surface (the bottom black line) it is reading that temps are above freezing.  Not to far above the surface, the temperature drops quickly.  The rest of the line is then well below freezing.

So as the snow is falling through the sky, it stays frozen until right before it hits the surface.  This is how we were able to see some flakes even though the surface air temperature was above freezing!

Although Halloween doesn’t fall on the calendar until Monday, some area trick-or-treaters have already been out and about gathering their candy.  Be watchful for the little ghouls and goblins each day this weekend and, of course, on Halloween Monday during the trick-or-treating hours in your neighborhood.  For a listing of the trick-or-treat times across the region, just click here to go to our wane.com trick-or-treat page.

I’ll tell ya, the weather looks okay for the trick-or-treaters.  Yes, it will be cool over the next few evenings.  But, not at levels that are too unusual for this time of year.   No rain is expected tonight.  Rain is forecast on Sunday, but not until 9 PM and beyond…so, the trick-or-treaters should not be affected.  Then, by trick-or-treating time on Monday, conditions should be dry as well.

I’ve posted the trick-or-treat forecasts for the next few days above.  Check them out!

Look for a low chance of rain at the start of the weekend and another low chance of rain at the end of the weekend.  Don’t expected a lot of rain, look for isolated showers Saturday morning and widely scattered showers Sunday evening.

The rest of the weekend looks cool with a partly cloudy sky.

There will be a warm up at the start of next week with highs back into the lower 60s by Wednesday.  Enjoy this while you can before our next round of cool, wet weather moves in for the tail end of the week.

It won’t be the warmest weekend, but for the most part it will be dry. Highs will only be in the lower 50s which is about 8 to ten degrees below normal for this time of year.

There will be a couple of small waves of low pressure moving through the area. The first will be Saturday morning with some scattered showers through the early part of the day.

The second wave will move through Sunday evening and could possibly linger into Monday morning.

After that it should be quiet and a bit warmer through the middle of next week.

Did you miss the Northern Lights Monday night?  By the time I discovered they were happening, they had already ended.  Just last night, I had someone ask me if the Northern Lights can be forecasted?

Yes, there is an official Northern Lights forecast by the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, but it is not as easy as forecasting temperatures or rain.  Astronomers can see the solar storms or solar flares on the surface of the sun that triggers the Northern Lights, but the warning time is only hours, not days.

There is a SpaceWeather Text Alert you can sign up for, but there is a month cost.

Here is a product that I monitor for Northern Lights activity:  Statistical Oval Circle

If you have the free time, you can monitor the stories on Spaceweather.com.  That, or monitor the news feed of the WANE-TV Facebook Page.

If you want to see some great pictures from this latest showing of the Northern Lights, check out the Spaceweather October Northern Lights Photo Gallery.

For the most part showers will be over for the area for the next several days. Although Futurecast is picking up some light shower activity during the pre dawn hours of Saturday. Skies should clear by Saturday afternoon but the cool air will remain in place through the weekend. High temperatures will barely get out of the middle 50s.

We should see near normal temperatures next week as highs will be back in the upper 50s.