Just north and west of the five boroughs of New York City, no more than a county or two over, frost advisories and even freeze warnings were issued for early this morning. But that's not to say that we here on Staten Island are close to seeing our first 32-degree reading of the season.
The urban heat island tends to significantly delay the onset of the freeze season here; on average the city sees its first frost of the fall on Oct. 27, and it's not unsual for us to get well into November before we see 32 degrees.
We're not expected to get anywhere near that cold here this week, but it is going to feel colder than normal for the majority of the week. Today, with gradually increasing clouds as the day wears on, the temperature isn't expected to get any higher than about 56 (today's normal high is 65).
The temperature could make it up to 65 on Tuesday, but that will likely be our warmest day of the week. A remarkably cold air mass has been hovering over the mountain West for days, spilling into the northern Plains, and cold air at our latitude has a way of making it east eventually. On Thursday our temps aren't forecast to get out of the 40s for highs, as a coastal low develops and perhaps gives us some significant rain to close out the work week.
Weather circles have been buzzing for several months now about a potentially new cloud formation, what is being called the undulatus asperatus. I've been consistently skeptical of the cloud's existence since it looks, well, so Photoshopped. It doesn't look real, and I've never seen anything remotely resembling such a cloud in my travels.
But with more and more legitimate news organizations and publications picking up this story, the campaign to get the undulatus asperatus listed in the International Cloud Atlas appears to be legitimate. But mind you, there hasn't been a new cloud formation declared in some 50 years, and there's probably a good reason for that. Read more about the new cloud here.
Yesterday's extreme temperatures in the contiguous United States --- High: 93 at Okeechobee, Fla.; Low: 6 at Mullan Pass, Idaho. The moon is currently in its last quarter, 41 percent illuminated.