CNN —
Millions of trick-or-treaters across the US will be reaching for extra layers, not umbrellas, this Halloween as temperatures fall to “scary” levels for October.
Much of the contiguous US will remain dry as people go door-to-door Tuesday evening in search of candy, with a couple of exceptions.
A storm off the mid-Atlantic coast will bring showers from the Carolinas to southern New Jersey just in time for trick-or-treating Tuesday evening.
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A few snow showers will also spread across portions of the Great Lakes on Tuesday. Flakes began to fall early Tuesday morning across portions of Wisconsin and Illinois and will spread east into parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio by Tuesday night. The first snow of the season could arrive in Chicago on Tuesday, but very little accumulation is expected.
Conditions across the rest of the US will range from chilly to downright cold by Tuesday evening with about 120 million people under freeze watches and warnings.
A shot of bone-chilling air plunged south out of Canada early this week and overspread much of the US early Tuesday, sending temperatures plummeting by as much as 30 degrees and making it feel more like December than October.
High temperatures for much of the East and parts of the South on Tuesday will fall nearly 10 degrees short of what’s normal for the end of October. It’ll feel more like early December from Burlington, Vermont, to Atlanta.
Philadelphia and Washington, DC, climbed solidly into the 80s over the weekend but will struggle to make it out of the low 50s by Tuesday afternoon and drop into the upper 40s by late Tuesday evening.
Portions of the West Coast and Florida will be the only areas of the contiguous US to avoid goosebumps on Halloween.
In Dallas, the high temperature will be in the 50s on Tuesday – nearly 20 degrees below normal – and will feel more like late December than October. Any trick-or-treaters out on Tuesday evening will need to bundle up as temperatures fall into the 40s.
Temperatures in the Rockies will begin a slow rebound on Tuesday from the weekend’s teeth-chattering cold, but conditions will generally remain quite chilly for late October.
Just like a carved pumpkin, this cold won’t last forever. Chilly air will persist across the northern tier of the US for much of the week, but the South and much of the central US will trend back toward normal before the weekend.
