Aug-tober warmth, near record highs Sunday

A small plane buzzed over the Weather Lab the other day.

For some reason that lazy Cessna or Piper engine hum overhead brings me back to the Octobers of my youth. As a young weather geek growing up in the west metro, I vividly remember fall cleaning day. My dad would issue the annual household decree. Saturday was basement and garage cleaning day in preparation for the coming winter.

My favorite part? Going to get the trailer. Yes, these were pre-recycling days. Months of daily newspapers carefully stacked and bundled with brown twine. Anything loose and taking up space in the garage tossed into the trailer in preparation for a trip to the local landfill.

During the few dozen trips from the garage or basement to the trailer, my eyes inevitably looked up and studied the details of a few wispy cirrus clouds decorating a deep blue October sky. My dad was a volunteer pilot for the Civil Air Patrol. One of his sons constantly bombarded him with questions about the sky, weather and flight. He often flew small aircraft out of Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie. Cessnas often buzz overhead as we clear space in the detached two-car garage.

The sound of that small plane hum overhead today still brings me back to those warm sunny October Saturday afternoons of my youth.

October warm front

The next in our series of fall warm fronts blows in Saturday. Saturday is the windier day of the weekend. Southwest winds gust over 25 mph fanning choppy lakes and waves crashing onto the north and east shore.

The maps show another in a series of warm fronts pumping in warm air this weekend.

Here's a more detailed breakdown of the weekend forecast. Temperatures will push the record of 84 degrees in the Twin Cities Sunday afternoon. Does it get any better than this in October?

Enjoy!