Have you turned on your heat yet? If not, there’s a reason.
It’s either going to be the warmest October ever recorded in Boston, or it will be the warmest October in 70 years, the National Weather Service said.
Depending on how cool it gets this Halloween, the month’s average temperature will rank as either the first- or second-warmest since records have been kept, weather service meteorologist Bill Simpson said Tuesday.
Through Monday, this October’s average temperature was 61.7 degrees, more than 7 degrees above the normal October average of 54.1 degrees and just surpassing the record of 61.5 degrees set in 1947.
Advertisement
It’s also a far cry from the coldest Octobers, in 1883 and 1888, when the average temperature was 47.7.
Of the 30 days recorded so far this month, 24 had average temperatures above the daily normal. The highest variation from the norm occurred on Oct. 24, when the daily average was more than 17 degrees above normal. Temperatures surpassed the normal average by double-digits on a dozen days.
The warmest moment over the past month came early, on Oct. 5, when temperatures reached 80 degrees. That was 14 degrees above normal. While there were outlying days such as the 5th and 24th, Simpson said, the month’s high average temperature was a result of a long string of warmer-than-average days, rather than a brief heat wave or major climate event.
“Each individual day is not that unusual. We were just stuck in a pattern that kept us on the warm side,” Simpson said. “We were kind of locked into that pattern.”
The warmth might continue into November, Simpson said.
“It’s likely to continue above average,” he said of Boston’s temperature. “The upper air pattern is likely to continue similarly.”
Earlier this month, the Climate Prediction Center, a sister agency to the National Weather Service, reported that it expects a warmer-than-average winter across New England.
Advertisement
Ben Thompson can be reached at ben.thompson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Globe_Thompson.