Columbus soared into the upper 80s yesterday, the third-warmest high on record for September 28.
While this warmth is fairly common early in September, it’s much less so by now. At the end of September, reaching at least 85 on a given date has up to a 1-in-10 chance of happening, based on our climate history.
I’ll have more about 80-degree weather in the bottom section of today’s newsletter, including a certain 3rd-place finish we’ll set this month.
The 614cast
Today’s tl;dr
☀️ Mainly sunny, high in the middle to upper 80s.
Forecast highlights
🔥 Warm start to the week
Highs will remain above normal for the foreseeable future, but at least they’ll steadily drop each day this week. Thursday and Friday will still be more than five degrees warmer than average, even as we (barely) drop back into the 70s.
Along with the “cooler” air, Canadian high pressure will push in drier air later this week.
🌂 Bone dry again
And with high pressure blocking up the weather pattern in our part of the country, rain chances are nil over the next week.
The closest anything gets is way to our southeast, where some rain bands from Imelda may produce showers early this week.
Long-range guidance isn’t showing anything here until maybe about the 7th of October at the earliest.
📊 Today’s almanac
Normal low/high: 51 / 73
Record low/high: 32 (1961) / 96 (1953)
Sunrise/set: 7:26 a.m. / 7:17 p.m.
🕹️ 80s in fall
Columbus will have 22 days this month with a high of at least 80, tying for third-most on record.
These are the top spots:
-
24 days: 2019
-
23 days: 1998
-
22 days: 2007, 1941, 1908, 1881
That many 80s is obviously way more than is typical. But we do often get around two or three days of 80s in October.
The average last date of 80s, using the 1991–2020 climate period, is October 6. Only 20% of years have reached 80 after the mid-point of October. The latest on record was November 3, 1987.
🌭 For the weather weenies
-
Can two hurricanes fuse into a monster storm? (Jeff Berardelli/Bluesky)
-
Beware the ‘I’: 11 Atlantic hurricanes starting with ‘I’ have been retired this century (The Weather Channel)