Ohio wakes up to a cloudy, mild Halloween morning with high pressure holding over the state and no hazardous weather expected anywhere, according to the National Weather Service. There are no watches, warnings or advisories in effect in Ohio today, and rain chances stay near zero in every region through tonight. Early Saturday, Cleveland was fair at 44 degrees, Toledo was cloudy at 51, Columbus was partly cloudy at 52 with an east wind at 6 mph, and Cincinnati was cloudy at 54.
Northwest Ohio stays mostly cloudy all day, with a high near 61 in Toledo and highs in the low 60s around Findlay, Defiance and Lima, according to the National Weather Service. East to southeast winds of 5 to 10 mph keep the day feeling cool, and skies stay gray through the afternoon without any rain. It is a dry, easy day for travel across the northwest, with no fog or wind concerns in the forecast.
Northeast Ohio is again among the cooler corners of the state, with mostly cloudy skies and highs in the low 60s in Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Youngstown, according to the National Weather Service. East winds keep temperatures in check along Lake Erie, where waves stay at 1 foot or less today, according to the National Weather Service marine forecast. The clouds thicken as the day goes on, but the northeast stays dry through the evening hours.
Central Ohio turns mostly cloudy with a high in the mid-60s in Columbus, according to the National Weather Service. Southwest Ohio is the warmest part of the state: Dayton climbs into the upper 60s, and Cincinnati is mostly cloudy with a high near 69 and an east wind of 3 to 6 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington. Southeast Ohio around Athens, Marietta and Portsmouth follows close behind, with mostly cloudy skies, highs in the mid to upper 60s, and no rain expected.
Tonight is the part of the forecast Ohio families care about most, and it cooperates. Trick-or-treat hours stay dry statewide, with temperatures falling from the low 60s in the south and near 60 in central Ohio into the 50s everywhere after dark, according to the National Weather Service. Costumes will not need rain gear, though a layer underneath will help once the sun sets around 6:30 p.m. Saturday night then stays cloudy and mild, with lows in the low to mid-50s in most areas, and clocks fall back one hour at 2 a.m. as daylight saving time ends.
Sunday brings that extra hour of sleep along with more clouds and a warm-up, with highs in the upper 60s in the north and the low 70s in central and southern Ohio, and sunset near 5:29 p.m. in Columbus on the new standard time, according to the National Weather Service. Most of the state stays dry, but southwest Ohio picks up a chance of rain Sunday afternoon, about 40 percent around Cincinnati with less than a tenth of an inch possible, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington.
Looking ahead, the first full week of November starts mild before it turns wetter. Monday carries only a low chance of a shower, and Tuesday — Election Day — is among the warmest days of the stretch, with highs in the low to mid-70s, according to the National Weather Service. Rain then becomes likely Wednesday into Thursday as a cold front crosses Ohio. For today, though, the Halloween forecast is simple: clouds, mild 60s, dry streets for trick-or-treating, and no weather worries anywhere in the state.
Photo: daveynin, CC BY