Will It Rain on Halloween? Where Trick-or-Treaters May Need an Umbrella

With less than a week until Halloween night, all eyes are on the forecast. Will Mother Nature cooperate for all of the festivities, or will it be a scary night of weather? Read on for the early Halloween forecast.

Mixed Bag of Tricks and Treats in Halloween Forecast

This Halloween is shaping up to be one for the ages. The timing of the holiday on both a Saturday and with an extra hour of sleep the next morning, as most Americans turn their clocks back one hour, means that people are going to be looking to live it up this year.

Aside from a few consistent regions of the U.S., you never know what to expect for the weather on Halloween. This will be the case again this year, with a little of everything in the forecast.

While it is still early to predict with precision, it is looking as if rain and the threat of thunderstorms could put a damper on trick-or-treating across much of the Southwest and the central U.S. Meanwhile, the eastern U.S. is likely to see mostly dry conditions over the holiday weekend.

This is the time of year when the jet stream starts to strengthen, translating to a higher chance of strong storms. The jet stream pattern over the last week has been responsible for the mostly sunny and dry weather in the central and eastern U.S. This pattern is forecast to linger for the East, but not necessarily across the nation's midsection.

A storm system that is prompting rain and thunderstorms across the interior West is going to push to the east throughout the week. This movement will work to dry out the West while the central U.S. experiences an uptick in the soggy weather.

The latest forecast indicates that the bulk of the interior Northwest and the eastern third of the U.S. will remain dry on Friday and Saturday. The exception to dry weather out west will be across the immediate coastal region of the Northwest.

A cold front pushing across the Northern Plains will raise the risk of sporadic rain showers on Friday to a large swath of eastern Montana, the Dakotas, western Minnesota, and the Upper Midwest. This cold front will track farther to the east on Saturday, dragging the rain into the interior Northeast.

It will also be a chilly holiday for much of the northern tier of the U.S. Children heading out for trick-or-treat fun on Saturday will need to dress in layers across cities such as Seattle, Minneapolis, New York City, and Boston. Temperatures could dive as low as the 50s and 40s in these cities by the time that kids start going door to door in search of candy.

Greatest Chance of Rain in Southwest and Central U.S.

Rain and the threat of thunderstorms will also be a potential disruption on Friday in a zone from the interior Southwest and into the south-central U.S. Major cities such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Austin, and Dallas will want to keep a close eye on the hourly forecast if making outdoor plans.

Forecasters are warning that the chance of rain will advance farther north and east on Saturday, encompassing much of Colorado, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana from Friday into Saturday.  This region could also be impacted by the moisture associated with tropical weather maker Vance. Should any of the rain bands from this system in the Eastern Pacific break away from the core, it could raise the chance of heavy rain and flooding across the southern Plains and beyond.

Moving to the south, the soggy weather pattern across the Southeast and down into Florida is forecast to persist through the week and into the Halloween weekend. There is still hope that the gusty conditions and precipitation will begin to ease in this corner of the country by the time that Halloween rolls around.

You can expect the weather to improve from north to south by the end of next week as high pressure anchored over the Northeast expands southward. This progression means that South Florida may still be dodging rain showers on Halloween.

Weather changes fast, so help your community stay prepared. Share this story with friends, family, or your group chat, and keep your forecast in the now with Weather Forecast Now.