Ohio’s mild, dry Tuesday is warming up right on schedule late this morning, with sunshine mixing with partly cloudy skies statewide and no hazardous weather anywhere in the state, according to the National Weather Service. Its Wilmington office’s Hazardous Weather Outlook, issued early Tuesday, says no hazardous weather is expected today or tonight — and none is expected Wednesday through Monday either. Late-morning readings were already climbing, with Columbus at 61 degrees and sunny under light east-southeast winds, and the Weather Service’s tabular state forecast shows a zero percent chance of precipitation for every Ohio region today.
In northwest Ohio, the rest of Tuesday stays partly cloudy and dry, with afternoon highs near 70 in Defiance and Findlay, 71 in Lima and 64 in Toledo, where Lake Erie holds the lakeshore a few degrees cooler. North-central Ohio follows the same pattern, topping out near 69 in Mansfield and 65 in Sandusky. Winds stay light, generally east to southeast around 5 to 10 mph, so the afternoon shapes up as an easy one for travel, early-voting trips and outdoor fall work across the northern counties.
Northeast Ohio spends the rest of the day partly cloudy as well, with highs near 68 in Akron-Canton and 66 in both Cleveland and Youngstown, according to the National Weather Service. In central Ohio, Columbus warms to near 72 this afternoon under partly cloudy skies. The Miami Valley reaches about 70 in Bellefontaine and 72 in Dayton, while east-central communities including New Philadelphia and Zanesville also top out near 70 — comfortable, dry conditions from Lake Erie to the mid-state counties through the evening commute.
The warmest readings this afternoon are again in the south. The National Weather Service calls for sunny to partly cloudy skies and highs of 72 in Wilmington, 74 in Cincinnati and 74 in Portsmouth in south-central Ohio. In southeast Ohio, highs reach about 72 in Athens, 74 in Jackson and 73 in Marietta. Rain is not in the picture anywhere in the state today, and there are no flooding, fog, wind or frost concerns with this forecast.
Tonight, clouds increase and skies turn mostly cloudy in many areas, but the night stays dry statewide. Overnight lows settle in the upper 40s to low 50s — about 49 to 52 in northwest Ohio, 50 in Columbus, 47 to 50 in the northeast, 53 in Dayton and the upper 40s across the southeast. With dry roads and light winds, nighttime travel should be trouble-free in all five regions, though a jacket is a good idea once the sun goes down — sunset in Columbus is at 6:35 p.m.
Wednesday brings another partly cloudy, mild day, with highs from 69 in Youngstown to 75 in Cincinnati — 72 in Toledo and Cleveland, 73 in Columbus and 74 in Dayton. Thursday looks sunnier and is the warmest day of the stretch, with highs in the mid-70s in most places and up to 76 or 77 in Cincinnati, Lima, Portsmouth and Jackson. Friday stays mostly dry with only a small shower chance in northern Ohio, and Halloween Saturday looks mostly cloudy and dry with highs in the upper 60s to low 70s — good news for trick-or-treat plans.
The pattern finally changes on Sunday, Nov. 1, when the National Weather Service forecasts showers statewide with a 50 to 60 percent chance of rain and highs near 68 to 71, continuing into Monday — the same morning Ohio turns its clocks back as daylight saving time ends. Until then, the advice is simple: enjoy the dry, above-normal warmth while it lasts, because the first weekend of November brings the state’s first real rain chance in more than a week.
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