September sure has gotten off to an extreme start on both ends of the temperature ledger with record cool in the Pacific Northwest while it’s been record warm over the Plains through Great Lakes up into Canada. Pretty much opposite of summer.

Yesterday was one of those extreme days. 20 below verses 20 above within a few hundred miles.

You don’t get a much colder or warmer start to September than this!

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It’s a tale of two even three halves across the Northern Tier. While it’s autumn in the interior Pacific Northwest, Northern Rockies with highs stuck 20-30 below normal, it’s summer in the Northern Plains into the Upper Midwest with widespread 90s, even 100s as far north as Nebraska.

It’s all down to a storm system crossing Canada. Summer ahead of the front, autumn behind it. Note in the below actual highs from yesterday, it didn’t get above 45 degrees in west-central Idaho and parts of western Montana while it reached the 90s as close by as South Dakota.

Sat AM actual lows. Note the 20s/30s in Pacific Northwest vs 70s in the N Plains

I say a tale of three halves because it was cool in the Northeast Saturday as well as Northwest with the core of heat being squeezed northward in between. Change comes into Labor Day and through the upcoming week as the core of heat spreads west and east out from the Plains bringing the return of heat to California as well as the DC to Boston corridor.

By late week, the summer-like ridge is back in the West while a deepening trough dives into the East.

For New York City, while cooler with lower humidity during Saturday, the high still reached 80-degrees which keeps the record breaking streak going.

While there may be a record consecutive streak of 80s, New York is well off any record for 90-degree days. In fact it’s the 2nd least amount of 90s to date since 2009. Last year was less.

Labor Day outlook from AccuWeather.com

See video for today’s discussion.

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