Quiet & Warm Weather Into Early November

A sunny day for the last Friday of October is in the cards for the Twin Cities, with morning temperatures in the mid-40s and highs climbing to the low 60s. Can't complain about this weather for late October!

While a few clouds will be possible at times through mainly the morning hours, especially up toward Fargo and Bemidji, we should see mainly sunny skies across much of the state throughout the day. Highs will be in the 50s in northern Minnesota with 60s across the southern two-thirds of the state and in western Minnesota.

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The weekend weather looks wonderful to do just about anything outside (except winter sports, of course)! Mainly sunny skies should dominate Saturday, with just a few more clouds around on Sunday. Highs will be in the low to mid-60s. The nice weather will continue into Halloween Monday, with sunny skies and low 60s for highs.

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No Halloween Blizzard this year - in fact, a lighter jacket may be all that's needed under the kids costumes. Temperatures as the ghosts and goblins go trick or treating will be in the mid-50s with southerly winds at 5-10 mph. Partly cloudy skies are expected.

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There was very little change in the Drought Monitor this week, with only about a percent increase in the Severe Drought category. That also means that there wasn't any improvement in the numbers.

That increase in drought category was across parts of southwestern Minnesota down toward Jackson.

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One word that can easily describe meteorological fall (since September 1st) so far this year: DRY. The Twin Cities hasn't even picked up half an inch of precipitation over the past (almost) two months, making it the second driest September 1st-October 26th on record.

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Next Week: More September Than November
By Paul Douglas

I'm filled with a sense of awe, dread and hope. Which is a lot of feelings for a Friday morning. Awe: low 70s the first week of November? I'm oddly OK with that.

Dread: nearly half the state is in drought. 53% of the USA is in drought, the highest level since 2012. The UN warns the world is on course to warm by 2.8C (5F) by 2100. You may not care, but odds are your kids do.

Hope: renewable energy provided almost a quarter of America's electrical generation during the first two-thirds of 2022, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

I'm trick or treating as a doppler radar this year. A very unwieldy costume I must say.

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Paul's Extended Twin Cities Forecast

FRIDAY: Sunny and pleasant. Wake up 45. High 61. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind SW 8-13 mph.

SATURDAY: Perfect blue sky. Wake up 43. High 64. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind S 8-13 mph.

MONDAY: Sunny, lukewarm Halloween. Wake up 39. High 65. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind SW 8-13 mph.

TUESDAY: Sunny and mild. Wake up 42. High 68. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind S 5-10 mph.

WEDNESDAY: Sunny and breezy. Bug-free. Wake up 54. High 70. Chance of precipitation 0%. Wind S 10-15 mph.

THURSDAY: Fading sun, stiff breeze. Wake up 59. High 72. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind S 10-20 mph.

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*Length Of Day: 10 hours, 20 minutes, and 43 seconds
*Daylight LOST Since Yesterday: 2 minutes and 52 seconds

*When Do We Drop Below 10 Hours Of Daylight?: November 5th (9 hours, 58 minutes, 32 seconds)
*Latest Sunrise Before The Time Change: November 5th (7:57 AM)
*Earliest Sunset Before The Time Change: November 5th (5:55 PM)

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This Day in Weather History
October 28th

1960: A 29-day dry stretch in west central Minnesota ends.

On Friday, an area of low pressure across the Southern Plains will produce showers and storms across the region and into the Deep South. Rain and higher-elevation snow will also be possible in the Pacific Northwest.

At least 1-3" of rain will be possible through the first half of the weekend across the Pacific Northwest and the Southern Plains/Lower Mississippi Valley. Meanwhile, several inches of snow are expected to accumulate in the Cascades as well as the central Rockies.

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Greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere hit record high in 2021

More from NBC News: "The amount of carbon dioxide and two other greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere hit record highs last year, the World Meteorological Organization said in a report published Wednesday. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the three main greenhouse gases responsible for trapping heat in the atmosphere and driving global warming. The WMO's latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, published annually, found that concentrations of all three reached new highs last year — a worrying trend and a sign that the world is not doing enough to fight climate change. "WMO's Greenhouse Gas Bulletin has underlined, once again, the enormous challenge — and the vital necessity — of urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global temperatures rising even further in the future," Petteri Taalas, the WMO's secretary-general, said in a statement."

More from Grist: "Every year for the past seven years, the medical journal the Lancet has published a report summarizing the previous year's research on how climate change is affecting human health around the globe. In 2020, the journal drew an exceedingly grim conclusion: that climate change threatens to unravel 50 years of public health gains. This year's report, published Tuesday, is proof that the Lancet's 2020 report wasn't warning of a far-off threat — the health impacts of climate change are unfolding now, in real time. The 2022 report, titled "Health at the Mercy of Fossil Fuels," says the worsening impacts of climate change "are increasingly affecting the foundations of human health and wellbeing." Adults over the age of 65 and children younger than 1 year old experienced a cumulative 3.7 billion more heatwave days in 2021 than those vulnerable populations did on an average year between 1986 and 2005. Heat-related deaths spiked 68 percent between 2017 and 2021 compared to the period between 2000 and 2004."

Our Ailing Power Grid Isn't Cut Out for Climate Change

More from CNET: "On Aug. 14, 2003, a tree branch struck a power line in northern Ohio. Within minutes, 21 power plants shut down due to a series of errors. Fifty million people from Ohio and across the northeastern United States and Canada were affected. Around 100 people died. Some areas regained power within a few hours, while others waited days. In New York City, people fled subways in droves, walking across bridges to get home. Others waited hours in lines to buy batteries and other supplies. It was one of the largest blackouts in US history and cost the US $4 billion to $10 billion. It began to shed light on how broken the existing system is and how much change is needed. ... Blackouts are becoming more common, as the grid struggles to adjust to the shift to electric vehicles and the increase in the frequency and severity of storms amid climate change. Errors that result in debilitating outages, like the 2003 blackout, exacerbate growing energy demands."

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Thanks for checking in and have a great day! Don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@dkayserwx) and like me on Facebook (Meteorologist D.J. Kayser).