COLUMBIA, S.C. — Typically for South Carolina, weather conditions for Halloween are fall season warm during the day. Then it gets much cooler, if not chilly, during the hours after sunset.
But climatological data from Climate Central shows that the extreme temperatures are trending not as chilly as it should be for nearing the end of October. In fact, observing the Halloween evening temperatures, trick or treating costumes may need to be more of long sleeves and leggings instead of sweaters and jeans.
Over 70 years of data indicates a Halloween evening temperature increase of over 5 degrees since 1970. The coldest trick or treat night dropped down to a temperature of 31 degrees in 2008. The warmest it's been in that time span was 88 degrees in 1950. We may continue to get warmer in the future and if we go by the climatological trend, Halloween temperatures could reach upwards of 55 to 58 degrees by 2050.
By looking at how the morning low temperatures have been for the month of October, we may have had several days of below normal temperatures.
However, in the 4 weeks to date, two-thirds of the start of the day has been above normal. The first eight days of October were well above the seasonal average.
The current month's trend and model guidance indicates we are likely going to have the rest of the month's low temperatures to be above the average of 49 degrees.
October's low temperatures have been mostly above average, but mid-month we did experience not only below seasonal average temperatures, it was closer to freezing temperatures.
Seasonally, the first freeze is usually occurs in the first week of November. Although October 18 and 19 got close, with morning temperatures of 36 and 37 degrees respectively, those were the only dates in the month that dropped in the 30s.
Climate Central's data shows the date of the first freeze of the season has averaged from late October to now mid-November. That's an increase of 12 days since 1970.
So what does this mean for the weather in the Palmetto State for Halloween and through the first week of November? The first freeze is average occurring later, which could become an agricultural issue of timing for farmers and growers. It also indicates that trick or treating wardrobes may be going from warm costumes to lighter and less garment clothes for the night of Hollow's Eve.
