Newfound Lake from Wellington State Park in New Hampshire on Oct. 1, 2023. Photo by Todd B. Bates/NH EnviroGuy blogger

Record Warmth Possible in New England Today

6 min readOct 3, 2023

Head outdoors and enjoy summer-like weather today!

Record warmth is possible in much of New England, following a very warm September.

Today’s forecast: Highs in the low 80s in much of New England. Source: National Weather Service

Temperatures will be “15 to 25 degrees above normal over parts of the Upper Mississippi Valley/Upper Great Lakes, Middle Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley, Lower Great Lakes, and the Northeast,” according to a Weather Prediction Center forecast discussion.

But “heavy rainfall may cause flooding concerns in the Northeast on Friday and Saturday,” another discussion says.

And who knows if a powerful nor’easter or hurricane will threaten the region this fall. The Atlantic hurricane season lasts through November.

It’s already been an above-normal season, Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University, posted.

Dry Weather Forecast in New England, Fall Outlook and Summer Recap

More weather and climate highlights in New England, the Northeast and beyond:

— October may be warmer and drier than normal in New England and the Northeast, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

— “Foliage is peaking across northern New England!” the Boston/Norton National Weather Service office posted yesterday. Peak foliage won’t appear in southern New England “for a few more weeks.”

— “El Niño conditions strengthened in the equatorial Pacific Ocean during August. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center indicates El Niño will continue through winter, likely peaking as a strong event. The U.S. East Coast tends to see above-normal precipitation and possibly snowfall during El Niño winters. The region is also expected to see more high-tide flooding days this year due in part to increased storminess related to El Niño,” according to NOAA’s Northeast Region Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for September 2023.

— Portland in Maine had its third warmest September on record, while Caribou had its fourth warmest, Burlington in Vermont its fifth warmest and Concord in New Hampshire its seventh warmest, the Northeast Regional Climate Center says. Hartford, Connecticut, had its second wettest September on record and Bridgeport its third wettest.

— Forty-seven tornadoes were confirmed in the Northeast from June through August (26 above the average), according to NOAA’s Northeast Region Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for September 2023.

— The Great Vermont Flood of 10–11 July 2023 and other Vermont-related weather information. Some debris from the flooding ended up in Long Island Sound, posing a danger for boaters and swimmers, according to the Northeast Region quarterly document.

— On Oct. 3 decades ago, stormy weather caused two disasters in New England. In 1841, dozens of fishing and other vessels and dozens of men and boys were lost during an “October Gale.” In 1979, a powerful F-4 tornado killed three people and injured 500 others in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, north of Hartford, the National Weather Service Boston/Norton office posted.

— Concentrations of greenhouse gases, the global sea level and ocean heat content hit record highs last year, according to the 33rd annual State of the Climate report published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and led by scientists at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

Wet August in New England, With Tornadoes and Hurricane Franklin

Other images, including 10 of my largely foliage-oriented photos in New Hampshire: