Are these hotter Halloweens just an outlier or will they be here to stay?
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — This Halloween is one for the record books — literally. The weather record book, that is.
It's officially Pittsburgh's warmest Halloween on record, according to First Alert Meteorologist Ray Petelin.
It's hot and the kids won't have to worry about putting a jacket or hoodie on underneath their costumes.
The upward trend is real and has been going on for years, so kids, enjoy showing off your costumes.
Kids who went out trick-or-treating on Halloween 1993 now may be out tonight with kids of their own, the big difference being they went hunting for candy in six inches of snow.
"There will still be cold Halloweens for a period of time with the track that we are on, but those colder Halloweens will become less frequent," said Shel Winkley, Climate Central Meteorologist.
Compared to that memorable Halloween 31 years ago, Winkley said that this Halloween is running "about 10-to-15 degrees above what is typical."
This year, however, is an outlier across the last 50 Halloweens in Pittsburgh.
"We've seen our overnight temperatures warm on average about 3.6 degrees," he explained. "That's pretty significant over that time period and it puts our average fall nights around 45 degrees or so."
However, it's not just Halloween, Winkley said that over half of our fall in Pittsburgh is now expected to feel above average.
He said we've gone from 40-to-50 fall days above average and yes, he said greenhouse gases are to blame due to forming a blanket overhead.
"That's now over our planet," he explained. "That's holding our temperatures up, and that's making all of our seasons warmer, specifically fall."
Along with fall, Winkley explained that winter is shortening on both ends and the heat from the summer lasting longer.
Winkley said their studies at Climate Central said our Halloweens will stay comfortable, just not that fall chilly, almost spooky feeling we are so accustomed to.
The impact isn't just on the temperature. He said that the warming is allowing fall allergies to hang around longer and keeping bugs around longer. That's due to the first freeze coming later and later which also prompts more intense and localized rain storms.
