Tuesday, 24th, 1PM PDT
❝ It’s not every October 23 or 24 that millions of Americans are swathed in temperatures above 100°F. This week has done just that, bringing some of the toastiest weather ever observed in the United States during late October, and more pre-Halloween heat is on the way. By far the most scorching weather has been in Southern California, although it’s also been exceptionally mild this month in settings as far-flung as Michigan, Florida, and New England…
❝ The first three weeks of October were remarkably mild for most of the United States east of the Rockies. Overnight lows across most of the Northeast on Monday night were in the 50-70°F range—warmer than the average highs for this time of year! Albany, NY, “dipped” to 68°F early Tuesday, compared to its average high and low for the date of 57°F and 37°F. If the temperature stays above 64°F through midnight, it’ll be Albany’s highest daily minimum ever recorded this late in the year, in data going back to 1874.
Don’t know what it’s like in your neck of the prairie; but here in northern New Mexico we used to plan for the first fire in our living room stove on October 15th. Not in a number of years. In fact we stockpiled the usual amount of firewood the last 2 autumns – and didn’t bring in any, this year. We have enough leftover for a full-sized old-fashioned winter, stacked and waiting. No fire in the stove, yet.
Eideard 
Pretty much as described – here in New England, the sea was still ok for swimming the last time I checked about a week ago.
According to a leaked draft of the Department of the Interior’s strategic vision, obtained by The Nation, the U.S. Department of the Interior is committed to achieving “American energy dominance” through the exploitation of “vast amounts” of untapped energy reserves on public lands—ignoring climate change completely. https://www.thenation.com/article/interior-department-scrubs-climate-change-from-its-strategic-plan/
U.S. Department of the Interior, “Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2018 – 2022” (draft) http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4117074-Leaked-Draft-DOI-Strategic-Plan-Watermark.html#document/p1/a384536
“Are we ready for the deadly heat waves of the future? When days and nights get too hot, city dwellers are the first to run into trouble” (ScienceNews April 14, 2018 issue) https://www.sciencenews.org/article/are-we-ready-deadly-heat-waves-future “Europe’s 2003 heat wave left more than 70,000 dead, almost 20,000 of them in France. Since 1986, the first year the National Weather Service reported data on heat-related deaths, more people in the United States have died from heat than from any other weather-related disaster — more than floods, tornadoes or hurricanes. Heat’s victim counts would be even higher, but unless the deceased are found with a fatal body temperature or in a hot room, the fact that heat might have been the cause is often left off of the death certificate. The number of days each year above 95° Fahrenheit (35° Celsius) is expected to rise across the United States, and average summer temperatures will reach new heights if greenhouse gas emissions remain high.” See maps comparing late 20th century temperatures to projections for the mid–21st century @ https://www.sciencenews.org/sites/default/files/2018/04/041418_heat_inline-2_730.png
“120 degrees in the shade?! Record-breaking, ‘dangerous’ heat wave bakes western U.S.” (USA Today 6/11/19) https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/11/heat-wave-western-us-bakes-temperatures-soar-120-degrees/1419639001/
“While any single weather event can’t be exclusively linked to climate change, unusual, extreme heat like what’s hitting the western U.S. and also India on the other side of the world likely have a global warming influence, scientists say. One expert, UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain tweeted Monday that “our recent work suggests that we’re reached the point where a majority (perhaps even a vast majority) of unprecedented extreme heat events globally have a detectable human fingerprint.” See “Quantifying the influence of global warming on unprecedented extreme climate events” (May 2017) https://www.pnas.org/content/114/19/4881