Grand Forks is expecting the season’s first snowfall Friday, only 79 days before the official start of winter.
Friday’s expected high is 39, below average by about 21 degrees, and low temperatures this weekend will plunge as low as 30 tonight.
Bill Barrett, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, said the temperature dip and weather forecast are arriving earlier than average.
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“(In) October you could almost get anything. It’s not unprecedented,” Barrett said. “Average never happens.”
Friday’s lower-than-average high and wind advisory could lead to small accumulations of sticky snow in Grand Forks, with higher accumulations, possibly more than an inch, northeast of town, Barrett said.
Beyond Friday, this weekend should be sunny and pleasant, but with continuing below-average temperatures. The National Weather Service predicted Saturday’s high at 46, and Sunday’s at 50, with chances of frost in the early morning.
Barrett said average high temperatures for this time of year are closer to 60, but that up-and-down temperatures and mixes of rain and snow are very common.
This weather is similar to last October, which marked a high temperature of 72 on Oct. 8, but fell as the month went on, with a low of 16 on Oct. 28, according to National Weather Service Climate data.
The average temperature last October was slightly below normal, around 42, and only traces of snow were recorded.
With this weekend in mind and the National Weather Service’s predicted 10-degree rise in temperature toward the middle of next week, a near repeat of last October’s conditions might be approaching.
