Breakfast Brief: What month is it?

The final week of October begins with record temperatures questioning whether it is actually September. Cooler changes are on the horizon in the West though.

The WeatherRadar shows a mostly clear sky across the eastern and central U.S. However, a Pacific storm moving ashore is bringing rain to the Pacific coast from northern California to the Northwest. This includes Portland and Seattle.

The same system is bringing snow to Cascades, northern Sierras and higher elevations of the northern Rockies. As it moves inland, rain and mountain snow will spread across more of the Great Basin and the central Rockies.

The above-normal October continues across the Plains from Texas to the Dakotas. The TemperatureRadar shows unseasonably warm afternoon highs climbing into the 70s across the Midwest, northern and central Plains and Ohio Valley. Even hotter 80s will bake Texas and Oklahoma, the lower Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Coast.

Once again, it is unseasonably hot across large stretches of the U.S. The TemperatureRadar shows afternoon highs in the 80s across the Southwest, Texas, South and the Southeast. A few spots in northern Texas, Oklahoma, eastern Kansas and the Desert Southwest will be in the 90s this afternoon.

Daily temperature records are possible from San Antonio and Dallas northward to Minneapolis and Duluth, Minn.

The East will be seasonable, with highs in the 60s across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic with cooler 40s and 50s found in the Northeast and New England.

The main tropical development zones remain quiet, but several tropical waves will produce showers across the Greater Antilles and the western Caribbean. The tropical wave in the southwestern Caribbean will be watched for additional development later this week as it drift northward.

No tropical development is expected over the next several days.

It's never too early to prepare for the winter season! Is your blizzard kit in order?