We are on the cusp of Halloween, and since of the way the calendar lines up, this will be the Trick or Treat night for almost if not everyone ( full list of Trick or Treat times ).
Not surprising, it does appear that precipitation, more specifically, rain is in the forecast for Halloween in the 2nd half of the day. I say not surprisingly, because we have had precipitation fall on Halloween night (October 31st), this includes rain, snow, drizzle, and flurries, 47% of the time. That is pretty much every other year we get a little bit of something.
What the forecast looks like for Halloween Thursday:
We are watching for Thursday as a cold front will arrive late day on Thursday. Ahead of this cold front we will see the winds picking up again, and temps surging well above normal. Expect winds through the day to kick to 10-20mph out of the south-southwest, and wind gusts pushing 25-35mph. By the afternoon, around the time the kids get off the bus, or walk home from school, rain showers are forecast to start in the area. This will be with a cold front that will be pushing through our area.
At the time of this writing, it appears the most likely time for rain showers in Central Ohio will overlap ToT hours unfortunately. However, unlike last year, when winds picked up during the ToT hours, and a quick blast of snow showers dropped as well, this will NOT be happening this year! The good news for the little ones on Thursday will be that temps will be abnormally warm, as highs will fall short of the record (83°), but will be in the top 6 for the date. With highs in the mid to upper 70s, this means no extra layers of clothes will be needed. Even as the cold front pushes through, we will only drop to the 60s behind it for the next few hours.
Keep in mind, because of the changes to which date Trick or Treating has been on in the past, to avoid Football, Friday nights, Saturday nights, weather, or any other choice a community has made, Trick or Treating night does not always fall on Halloween. For this story, and stat comparing, I am just looking at this year’s Halloween & Trick or Treating night of October 31st.
How will this Halloween rate since record keeping started in Columbus?
As mentioned above, this will likely be a top 6 warmest Halloween on record. Since record keeping started in Columbus in 1878, we average a high around 59° and a low near 40° on Halloween. The record was 83° set back in 1950, and the record low was 20° back in 1887. The coldest high temp ever was only 38° back in 1906. This was also the coldest October 31st by average temperature…