Summer In November In Eastern Half Of Nation

A beautiful, uncharacteristically clear November morning
in Georgia, Vermont Wednesday. Temperatures
soared into the upper 60s in the region by afternoon.  

Where I live in northwestern Vermont, the November weather almost always poses a challenge when I'm rushing to complete outdoor garden and yard chores before the rapidly onrushing winter hits.

It's usually drizzly and damp and dark. It's usually cold. Usually windy. Sometimes it snows. The sky is almost always covered with a dreary overcast.

Which makes this uncharacteristically sunny, warm week glorious.

Today is the third November day in a row I will be working outside in the sunshine, sweating a bit in shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt as I rake the leaves and put the gardens to bed.

Here in Vermont, we're sharing in a glorious Indian Summer that has brought record highs to much of the eastern two thirds of the nation.

The heat will gradually be swept away between now and the weekend, but for now, it's amazing.

No records have been set in Vermont so far, but they might today and tomorrow. Still, sunshine with temperatures in the upper 60s can't be beat in a Vermont November, especially when daytime highs are normally in the upper 40s.

The November warmth has been more intense in much of the rest of the eastern United States. Seven of Michigan's nine major weather stations hit record highs on Wednesday. It was 79 in Flint, and 77 in Detroit, which was the warmest for so late in the season.

Everywhere in the East is having temperatures way, way above average for this time of year, but the epicenter is Florida, where several cities had all time record November highs this week, not just recor highs for the date.

New or tied record highs for November in Florida included 92 in Tampa, 90 in Daytona Beach, 91 in Gainesville and 89 in Jacksonville. Normal high temperatures in the northern half of Florida this time of year are between 75 and 80 degrees.

As I noted, a cooldown is coming to the eastern half of the United States by the weekend, but it's not exactly going to be wintry yet.

A massive high pressure system of fair weather, mostly of Pacific Ocean origin, will settle across the eastern United States early next week, leading to more above normal temperatures, just not as extremely warm as it's been this week.

The Climate Prediction Center has above normal temperatures generally hanging on in the eastern two thirds of the United States well into mid-November