SCHENECTADY, NY — SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AP) — Trick-or-treaters in the Northeast, who have bundled up in their Bluey or Beetlejuice costumes in recent years, wandered comfortably through neighborhoods Thursday in unusually mild temperatures.
New York City reached a temperature of 81 degrees (27.2 degrees Celsius) on Halloween, while Boston reached a temperature of 78 degrees (25.5 degrees Celsius). Caribou, Maine, reached a high of 75 degrees (23.8 C), well above the Halloween average of 47 degrees (8 C).
Buffalo, New York, saw a record-breaking 78 degrees – a year after light snow fell on Halloween.
In Schenectady, parents let children dressed as ninjas, superheroes and princesses walk through residential streets before the sun set. The temperature was in the 70s and people loved it.
“It’s definitely not a typical Halloween,” said Tom Kaczmarek as he accompanied his 4-year-old daughter, who was dressed as a ghost. “But it’s nice that we don’t have to cover our daughter with a coat so she can wear her costume fully and with pride.”
Twelve-year-old Emma Abraham said she looked a little hot in her Joker costume, but she would keep it up.
“These temperatures are on average about 20 degrees warmer than normal,” said Samantha Borisoff, a climatologist at Cornell University’s Northeast Regional Climate Center. She noticed that the weather can vary greatly in Octobera transition month between the seasons.
“So every Halloween can be very different,” she said.
This year was a far cry from 2011, then an early Nor’easter just before Halloween dumped heavy, wet snow around New York’s Hudson Valley region. In 2012, the New York City area was in an uproar on Halloween Superstorm Sandy devastated the northeastern coastline on October 29, causing approximately $65 billion in damage.
Elsewhere, parts of eastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin got their first snow of the season on Thursday. The National Weather Service said there was high uncertainty about the accumulations because the ground is still warm. Snow melted as it hit the sidewalk in downtown Minneapolis.
But partygoers in the North East enjoyed the treat while it lasted. Temperatures were expected to return to normal from Friday.
Nelson Rose wore an enchanted scary clown mask in the late Schenectady sun, but he said he felt at ease as he rolled a double stroller for his grandchildren.
“End of October and we’re still having this 70-degree weather,” he said. “I’m not complaining at all.”
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Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski contributed from Minneapolis.