Ohio’s warmest day of the week is giving way to a cooler night as a weak cold front crosses the state overnight, ending the evening showers along Lake Erie and clearing skies for a sunny Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Around 9 p.m. Thursday, conditions were fair in Cleveland at 64 degrees and in Columbus at 63, clear in Cincinnati at 68 and mostly cloudy in Toledo at 62, a mild evening after afternoon highs reached the upper 70s statewide. No watches, warnings or advisories are in effect for Ohio land areas tonight, though a Small Craft Advisory covers Lake Erie waters overnight until 6 a.m. Friday for boaters.
Northeast Ohio sees the last of the rain first. Showers that were likely in the Cleveland area and Lake County this evening, with chances around 60 percent and amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, end late tonight as skies gradually turn partly cloudy, with a low around 51 degrees in Cleveland and west to northwest winds. Akron starts the night mostly clear before clouds increase, with a low around 50 and southwest winds of 5 to 8 mph turning northwest after midnight, according to the National Weather Service. The only travel note is a briefly wet road along the lakeshore while the last showers pass.
Northwest Ohio cools the fastest behind the front. Toledo, mostly cloudy at 62 degrees in the evening, turns partly cloudy overnight with a low around 42 degrees — the chilliest reading in the state tonight — behind northwest winds around 8 mph, and any early shower chance ends. Friday in the northwest is mostly sunny with a high near 62 in Toledo, and Friday night turns mostly cloudy with a low around 46.
Central and southeast Ohio stay dry all night. Columbus turns partly cloudy with an overnight low around 48 degrees and west-northwest winds around 6 mph, and southeast Ohio, from Athens and Marietta toward Portsmouth, follows the same dry pattern with lows in the upper 40s under partly cloudy skies. Southwest Ohio is the mildest corner overnight: Cincinnati, clear at 68 degrees in the evening, turns partly cloudy with a low around 50, and Dayton follows the same pattern in the upper 40s to around 50.
Friday is cooler everywhere behind the front, but it is dry and sunny statewide, according to the National Weather Service. Highs reach only the upper 50s to near 60 along the Lake Erie shore and near 62 in Toledo, the middle to upper 60s inland in the northeast — including near 67 in the Akron area — near 69 in Columbus, the upper 60s in the southeast, and around 70 in Cincinnati and Dayton, the warmest readings in the state. North to northwest winds ease through the day after a gusty Thursday.
Friday night turns partly to mostly cloudy with lows in the 40s across Ohio, from around 42 in parts of the northeast and north-central Ohio to the upper 40s in Columbus and around 49 in Cincinnati — a noticeably chillier night than Thursday night, and a good reason for a jacket over Halloween costumes at Friday evening events. No rain is expected Friday or Friday night anywhere in the state.
Halloween on Saturday stays dry for trick-or-treaters, with mostly cloudy skies, highs in the lower 60s in the north, near 64 in Columbus and the upper 60s in the southwest, and Saturday-night lows in the upper 40s to the low 50s. Sunday remains mostly cloudy with highs near 70 as daylight saving time ends and clocks fall back an hour at 2 a.m., then the long dry run finally loosens: the National Weather Service brings shower chances back Sunday night at roughly 30 to 40 percent, keeps a chance of showers Monday through Wednesday with highs in the upper 60s to lower 70s, and makes showers likely by next Thursday as a stronger system arrives. For tonight, Ohio simply trades Thursday’s upper-70s warmth for a cooler, sunny Friday.