The year 2020 has been an unprecedented year and the weather this past month has not been an exception.
In October alone the Brainerd area went from hitting a high of 82 degrees on Oct. 9 to a low of 11 on Oct. 27, along with receiving a record 10.3 inches of snow for the month. The normal high in October is 55.3 degrees.
As the first week of November rolls in, Brainerd lakes area residents can expect to see temps well above normal.
According to the National Weather Service in Duluth, the forecast for the Brainerd area calls for a high of 62 Tuesday, Nov. 3; 62 degrees on Wednesday; 61 on Thursday; and 65 on Friday.
“This will be a pretty good warmup stretching all the way from the central plains to the upper Midwest,” said meteorologist Kevin Huyck with the Duluth weather service office. “We’ll see a very nice warming pattern for the next couple of days.”
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Huyck said the normal high temperatures for the first week in November is in the mid-40s. And even though the expected temperatures may be about 20-25 degrees warmer than usual, the weather service isn’t forecasting any record-breaking temperatures.
Tuesday’s expected high of 62 is 18 degrees above average; Wednesday’s and Thursday’s expected highs may be about 20 degrees warmer than the average; and Friday’s expected 65 degrees is about 25 degrees above average.
“We will be within 5 degrees of record temperatures so it certainly appears within reach but not explicitly in the forecast,” Huyck said.
Record highs for the dates this week in Brainerd include:
65 degrees set on Nov. 2, 2015;
72 on Nov. 3, 1965;
73 on Nov. 4, 1975;
71 on Nov. 5, 2016;
72 onNov. 6, 1975;
65 on Nov. 7, 1975; and
69 on Nov. 8, 1931.
Huyck encouraged people to do their winter preparations this week, as the trend for next week appears to be below-average temperatures.
“We will have a pretty big pattern change in the forecast,” Huyck said of next week, especially in the later part of next week. “There is a low pressure system moving through the region and behind that we will see some cooler temperatures.”
Huyck said the upper 60s this week may be the area’s last “decent chance” of seeing warmer temperatures until next spring.
“We may still see some above average temperatures, but that average will be sliding colder as we get deeper into the season,” he said. “We will see below average temperatures by next week. We typically get a stretch of some warmer than average temperatures in November and this (week) could be the one.”
Forecast details
Tuesday and Wednesday: Sunny with a high near 62. Southwest wind of 5 to 10, with gusts as high as 15 mph. Tuesday night’s low, about 35; and Wednesday night’s low about 41.
Thursday: Sunny with a high near 61. West wind around 5 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 15 mph. Expected low around 43.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 65. Breezy, with a south wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Expected low around 49.
Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 61. Breezy, with a south wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Low around 46.
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