Ohio starts Wednesday, Oct. 28, mostly cloudy in the early hours before sunshine takes over statewide, according to the National Weather Service. The Weather Service offices in Cleveland and Wilmington both say in their Hazardous Weather Outlooks issued early Wednesday that no hazardous weather is expected today or tonight, and none is expected through Tuesday — no watches, warnings or advisories are in effect anywhere in Ohio. Early-morning readings sat around 50 degrees, including 51 and clear in Columbus and 50 and fair in Wilmington, with the mid-50s along Lake Erie in Cleveland.
In northwest Ohio, the National Weather Service forecasts patchy fog around Toledo early this morning, then sunny skies and a high near 74 with a southwest wind around 5 mph. In northeast Ohio, Cleveland turns mostly sunny with a high near 72 and a light west wind around 5 mph, and the rest of the northeast — Akron-Canton, Youngstown and the lakeshore — follows the same dry pattern with highs in the low 70s and rain chances at or near zero.
Central Ohio warms quickly once the morning clouds thin, with Columbus reaching a mostly sunny 75 degrees on a light south wind of 1 to 5 mph, according to the National Weather Service. The southwest is the warmest corner of the state today: Dayton is sunny near 76 and Cincinnati is sunny near 77, the highest reading in Ohio, with light southwest winds and no rain expected in either metro.
Southeast Ohio shares the dry, bright day, with Athens mostly sunny near 73 and the hill country from Marietta to Portsmouth in the low to mid-70s, according to the National Weather Service. Winds stay light from the south at 3 mph or less across the southeast, and precipitation chances sit at about 1 percent — another good drying day for harvest, road work and outdoor fall activities from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.
Tonight turns clear in every region, according to the National Weather Service, with overnight lows of 54 in Cleveland, 53 in Toledo, 51 in Columbus and Dayton, 49 in Cincinnati and 46 in Athens, where the sheltered valleys run coolest. Winds stay light from the south and rain chances remain at or near zero, so Wednesday evening plans and overnight travel should see no weather problems anywhere in the state.
Thursday looks like the warmest day of the stretch, with sunshine statewide and highs near 78 in Dayton and Cincinnati, 77 in Columbus, 75 in Cleveland and Toledo and 74 in Athens, according to the National Weather Service. Southwest winds pick up to 8 to 13 mph in the north. The one wrinkle is in the northwest, where Toledo picks up a 30 percent chance of rain showers later Thursday, and a slight chance of showers lingers Thursday night in Toledo and Cleveland as a front passes, dropping Toledo’s Friday-morning low to near 44.
Friday stays sunny but splits the state — cooler in the north behind that front, near 62 in Cleveland and 64 in Toledo, while central and southern Ohio hold near 72 in Columbus, 73 in Dayton and 75 in Cincinnati, according to the National Weather Service. Halloween on Saturday remains dry in the current outlook, and forecasters continue to point to the next real rain system arriving around Sunday, Nov. 1, as the long dry run finally breaks. Until then, the only travel note is this morning’s patchy fog in the northwest — everywhere else, Ohio gets a sunny, well-above-normal fall Wednesday.