PENNSYLVANIA, USA — It was a really warm start to the month, with several days in a row of temperatures well above average. The warmest day in the Scranton area was on Wednesday, October 4. The high was 84 degrees that day.
The end of the month saw another stretch of warm weather. With several days in a row of temperatures in the 70s, it has been over a decade since we've seen a stretch that warm and that late in the month. We did not break any records, though two days in a row, we were just one degree shy of that.
October 2023 will now be ranked in the top ten warmest on record for both northeastern and central Pennsylvania—number ten for the Scranton area and number nine for the Williamsport area.
Despite those warm days, we have had some wet weekends. In fact, it rained every weekend this month. Almost all of the measurable rain we received in October fell either on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. The only exception to that was this past Monday.
A total of 4.37 inches of rain fell this month at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. That is about an inch above average for monthly rainfall.
To end the month, we felt the coldest air we have had since the spring. Halloween morning started at or below freezing for most of us across northeastern and central Pennsylvania; the low was 31 in Williamsport and 34 in Scranton.
Even colder air moves in these first few days of November, and a lot of us will likely see the first flakes of the season this week, too.
We announced the start of our annual Snowthrower contest this month. We will have to wait and see when we record our first inch of snow here in the WNEP backyard.
Looking ahead to this weekend, we turn the clocks back one hour as Daylight Saving Time comes to an end. Sunrise on Sunday will be at 6:39 a.m., and the sun will set at 4:53 p.m.