Cooler temperatures follow northwest bomb cyclone, perfect Halloween weather on Suncoast

Summer temperatures will be long gone when trick-or-treaters hit the streets this weekend as a reprieve from the humidity and clouds rolls in Friday.

Following a slight chance of severe weather on Thursday, the coolest temperatures since early spring are expected to provide pleasant conditions for Halloween festivities in Sarasota and Manatee counties. 

Ruskin National Weather Service meteorologist Rick Davis said the weather pattern in the Pacific Northwest will cause some pressure over the Sunshine State. The front could stir storms Thursday and Friday depending on its arrival time, but the punch will be feeble compared to its related bomb cyclone that walloped the Northwest on Monday with high winds and a firehose of rainfall. 

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The National Weather Service in Seattle said it was the lowest pressure recorded off the Washington Coast. 

“That strong high pressure will produce breezy conditions Friday, and our temperatures will be comfortable and humidity will be lower,” Davis said.

No rain is expected in the forecast for Sunday night trick-or-treating. 

Sunday afternoon temperatures will be in the mid to upper 60s around Sarasota County, Davis said. 

“It'll feel quite comfortable,” he said. 

As Halloween approaches, the Suncoast reaches its weather transition season. By late October, the region falls into a pattern of fewer afternoon showers and bi-weekly cold fronts.   

“Those really hot temperatures and the summer afternoon rains slow down,” Davis said. “This year, we will have a slightly cooler than normal Halloween.”

It’s a raucous week nationwide with the bomb cyclone in the West dumping double-digit rainfall north of San Francisco, wind advisories in Nevada, a forecast for more than a foot of snow in the Utah mountains, and potentially two robust storm systems whacking the Northeast. 

But the wintry storms don’t signal the end of hurricane season just yet. The National Hurricane Center says a non-tropical area of low pressure that was consolidating Monday off the Northeast Coast of the US has a 40% chance of forming into a subtropical or tropical cyclone near the end of the week. 

The next, and last, name on 2021’s traditional list of hurricane names is Wanda. 

Samantha Gholar Weires covers social justice news for the Herald-Tribune and USA TODAY Network. Connect with her at sgholar@gannett.com or on Twitter: @samanthagweires