Ohio starts Friday, Oct. 30, noticeably cooler than Thursday’s unseasonably warm afternoon, and the National Weather Service expects a dry, mostly sunny day across the state behind the front that crossed overnight. Early-morning readings told the story of the change: Columbus was clear at 54 degrees, Dayton clear at 55 and Cincinnati mostly clear at 56, while Toledo was clear and chilly at 46, Athens was fair at 48, and Cleveland was partly cloudy at 57 with a north wind already blowing at 10 mph. No watches, warnings or advisories are in effect on land anywhere in Ohio this morning — the only alert is a Small Craft Advisory on Lake Erie that expires at 6 a.m.
In northwest Ohio, the day begins cold and clear before sunshine takes over, according to the National Weather Service. Toledo, which dipped into the mid-40s early, turns mostly sunny with a high near 61 and a north wind around 6 mph, and Findlay, Defiance and Lima follow the same pattern — a crisp morning, a sunny afternoon in the low 60s, and no rain. It is a clean, dry day for harvest work and travel across the northwest, a sharp step down from Thursday’s mid-70s.
Northeast Ohio is the state’s cool corner today. The National Weather Service forecasts partly cloudy skies in Cleveland with a high of only about 59 degrees, as north-northwest winds of 10 to 13 mph gust to 18 or 19 mph off Lake Erie through the middle of the day. Akron, Youngstown and the rest of the lakeshore from Lorain to Ashtabula stay in the upper 50s to low 60s under a mix of sun and clouds, and anyone heading to a Friday night playoff game in the northeast should plan on a jacket — temperatures there fall through the 50s during the evening.
Central and southwest Ohio get the best of the day. Columbus turns sunny with a high near 69 and a light north wind around 6 mph, according to the National Weather Service, and Dayton and Cincinnati are just as bright, both sunny with highs near 69 to 70 and northeast winds of 5 to 7 mph. After Thursday’s mid- to upper 70s, Friday reads as a classic late-October day in both metros — sunny, dry and comfortable, with rain chances at or near zero all day.
Southeast Ohio starts damp and cool in the river valleys — Athens reported 48 degrees with humidity at 95 percent early this morning — before sunshine burns through and warms the region quickly. The National Weather Service forecasts a sunny day in the southeast with a high near 70 in Athens, and Marietta, Portsmouth and Gallipolis follow the same script: sunshine, a light north wind around 5 mph, and no rain. No watches, warnings or advisories are in effect for the region.
Tonight, clouds increase across Ohio but the night stays dry everywhere, according to the National Weather Service. Columbus expects increasing clouds with a low around 46 and an east wind of 3 to 5 mph, Dayton expects partly cloudy skies with a low in the upper 40s, and the north cools into the mid-40s, with lows near 45 in both Cleveland and Toledo. Friday night football and playoff openers statewide play under dry skies, with temperatures falling from the 60s at kickoff in the south to the 50s by the final whistle.
Halloween on Saturday turns mostly cloudy but stays dry for trick-or-treaters, with the National Weather Service forecasting highs near 60 in Toledo, 61 in Cleveland, the mid-60s in Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati, and near 66 in Athens, with rain chances around 10 percent and Saturday-night lows in the low 50s. Sunday stays mostly cloudy and warms back up, with Columbus near 71, before the week ahead turns warmer still early on — and shower chances, absent since midweek, creep back in early next week, with the next better chance arriving around the middle of the week. Until then, Ohio’s run of dry fall weather holds from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.
Photo: James St. John, CC BY