Break Out the Flip Flops! An Indian Summer is Hitting Central New York

Bring the shorts and flip-flops back out. An Indian summer is coming in Central New York.

We're a month away from the first day of winter, but we're going to enjoy an Indian summer that will bring a nice stretch of warm weather. Temperatures will even reach the 70s for a few days...at the end of October.

An Indian summer is a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Several references describe a true Indian summer as not occurring until after the first frost, or more specifically the first "killing" frost.

Central New York has already seen a few mornings of front.

Weather Historian William R Deedler, of the National Weather Service, saidit's “any spell of warm, quiet, hazy weather that may occur in October or even early November”.

That sounds like the next week in Central New York!

But how did the term Indian summer begin? Depends on who you ask. The Farmer's Almanac says some think early American settlers mistook the sight of sun rays through the hazy autumn air for Native American campfires, resulting in the name “Indian summer."

Others speculate that Native Americans recognized this weather pattern and used the opportunity to gather additional food for the winter.

Wherever it came from, it's happening. Just look at the weather for the next week.

CNY Weather Forecast

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 69
Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 69
Monday: Partly sunny, with a high near 67
Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 72
Wednesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 70
Thursday: Partly sunny, with a high near 65

Overnight lows on Monday and Tuesday will be in the 50s.

Break out the golf clubs for one last round on the course. Hit the water for a final lap around the lake. Or finish off the last of the yard work and put the lawn furniture away before the snow flies. Just get out and soak up as much of the sunshine and warm temperatures as you can. It probably won't be back until sometime next April or maybe even May.