Summer flashback to fall frost: Midwest and Northeast to see wild temperature swings

It has been a record-smashing start to October, with numerous new high temperatures set from the Upper Midwest to the Northeast.

On Sunday in Minnesota, the Twin Cities hit 92 degrees Fahrenheit, which was the hottest temperature that area has ever recorded during the month of October.

On Monday, International Falls — on Minnesota's border with Canada — hit 87 degrees. That was hotter than the high temperature in Atlanta that day, and matched Miami's high Monday.

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Wednesday will feature one last day of widespread warmth, this time with most of the record highs likely to be set from the Great Lakes to the Northeast.

Highs that will be 10-30 degrees above average will lead to temperatures in the mid-to-upper 80s. That's more typical of midsummer, and will lead to new daily record highs for cities such as Buffalo, New York; Burlington, Vermont; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Rochester, New York; and Syracuse, New York.

But this will be the last day of record warmth. A fall front will dive out of Canada and bring sharply colder temperatures by later in the week from the northern Plains to the Great Lakes and eventually down to the mid-Atlantic.

That fall cold front will send temperatures plummeting, causing them to dip 10-20 degrees below average, making cities from the Upper Midwest to the mid-Atlantic feel more like November.

This will be the coolest air of the season so far for these regions.

The Twin Cities have already begun their cooldown, from high temperatures the past few days in the 80s and low 90s to the upper 60s Wednesday. By Friday, highs will be in the low 50s.

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Chicago will see one more day in the 80s Wednesday, before highs dip into the 70s Thursday, the 60s Friday and the 50s over the weekend.

The East Coast will hold onto the warmth a little longer, with cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., hanging onto high temperatures in the 60s and 70s through Saturday. The cold front will eventually make it to the East Coast by Sunday, dipping highs into the 50s and 60s along the urban corridor.

After a week that started with temperatures feeling like July or August, the cooler weekend temperatures will be more average for the month of November.

In terms of low temperatures, parts of the mid-Atlantic will see the first 40s of the season. For a city like Charlotte, North Carolina, these 40-degree temperatures are a little later than average, which typically occur at the very end of September.

Back across the Dakotas and the Upper Midwest, lows in the 30s combined with decreasing winds will present the first widespread frost over the weekend. The Dakotas will see their greatest frost risk Friday night into Saturday morning, and parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin will see a frost risk Saturday night into Sunday morning.