Wintery temperatures arriving in northern MS Valley, creeping into our neighborhood

Here's an unfortunate prelude of things to come and a wake-up call to Michiganders who've yet to realize that we're only three full calendar months away from January 1st:

Among Winter Storm Warnings in Alaska and Hurricane Warnings in the Bahamas is a Hard Freeze Warning and Frost Advisory for very close to our area of the country.

A hard freeze warning and frost advisory are in effect for most of the northern Mississippi Valley and upper peninsula of Michigan. Most gardens are harvested by now, but if you have any plants you've left outside it's going to be time to wrap them up or take them indoors soon.  Grilling weather is officially on its way out.

The NAM's latest run predicts some chilly weather in our neighborhood by early morning Friday.  Lows in the 30s aren't out of the question, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few frost advisories are issued for central lower Michigan - particularly away from the lakeshore areas.

The nice thing about fall in Michigan is that the warm lakes actually help to insulate us against the oncoming cold blasts. This of course leads to heavy lake affect snow for the snowbelts during the early winter months, or even further into the winter depending on how warm the lakes are or how long they take to freeze.

I still wouldn't rule out one more chance of thunderstorms as 70° weather and that storm system still looks probable for the second week of October, though the jury is out on that one, and the setup isn't looking as strong as it was before. Our fall pattern does tend to resemble our summer one quite a bit, though, with gradual warming trends followed by cold air plunges. It's just that the temperatures will now reflect fall, where the warm air will be in the 70s rather than the 90s and the cold air will be closer to 30-40°.