First Fall Front

[GaryV]

our Second Fall Front this evening

And fall just started yesterday. 2 in 2 days!

[wanderer2575]

[gonealookin]

It's not that time of year again.

In Oklahoma, the first fall cold front normally occurred around mid-October. In Las Vegas, I wouldn't be surprised if it were even later than that. Certainly I'm not expecting the 100s to end until sometime in September.

I'm in Vegas for PGA Tour in Summerlin this weekend, Oct. 17-20.  I would say the first fall front has arrived late yesterday into this morning.  No rain, just a few scattered clouds, temperature fairly mild but cool-for-here in the low 50s, but wind has been roaring overnight with steady >30 mph and gusts close to 50 mph.  I like to be at the course early in the morning but I'm sitting in a hotel room posting on an Internet forum because the golf has been delayed at least 4 hours this morning due to the unplayable conditions.

[wxfree]

In my reckoning, a mid-summer cool spell is a break from the heat and has nothing to do with fall.  I see the first fall front as one that accompanies a shift in the pattern such that summer-like heat is unlikely to happen again.  For my area, DFW, I consider that to be more than a few days with highs in the 90s.  We can get that warm any time of year, so more than a few days I consider to be summer-like.  For a long time, November was the only month with no record highs in the 90s, but that changed a while back.  A cold front that brings cool weather but doesn't break down the upper-level high, or if the high builds back later, is just a break from the heat, not an end to it.  Once the high breaks down and we get some real cool weather, which we've had, we'll probably have more highs in the 90s, but that probably won't last.  This is forecast this week.

[Road Hog]

We've had a few one-off cool fall blasts, especially last week when we got down to 43º. But there is nothing permanent on the horizon and we're most likely to be 90º on Halloween day.