Break out the hot apple cider, pumpkin muffins, and warm vegetable soup! On this last day of August, Fall must be impatient to begin with a strong cold front sweeping much of the country Sunday into today. Early Monday morning, the cold front has already cleared Virginia, and continues to push into the eastern Carolinas. With highs expected today in the low 70's, it seems like Fall is providing a mild preview of the approaching cooler season. Surface high pressure is settling in for the week from the Great Lakes to the Mid-Atlantic. This morning, temperatures are falling into the 30's in Wisconsin and Michigan and 40's through much of the Great Lakes states.
Our climatological averages in Richmond for August 31 are a high of 84 and a low of 65, but we will be close to the record cool high temperature today of 70 from 1999. This time of year, we can still have the last gasps of high Summer heat or the early breaths of Fall. The record high for this date is 102 set in 1953, and the record low is 46 from 1934.
This taste of Autumn will not last for too long, though, as temperatures will gradually return to average levels in the mid-80's by the end of this week.
