--- title: Tempest News, October 2026 description: Explore the weather patterns of September 2026, look back at early season nor'easter stats, & learn about significant historical milestones in forecasting. image: https://news.tempest.earth/hubfs/Tempest%20News%20October%202026.png --- [![tempest-news-01](https://news.tempest.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/tempest-news-01.png?width=300&height=99&name=tempest-news-01.png "tempest-news-01")](http://tempest.earth) - [Home](https://weatherflow.com/) - [Newsletter](https://news.tempest.earth/tag/newsletter) - [Articles](https://news.tempest.earth/tag/articles) ###### Posted by [Tempest](https://news.tempest.earth/author/tempest) ● October, 2026 # Tempest News, October 2026  “It must be October, the trees are falling away and showing their true colors.”   \-  Charmaine J. Forde ## September Weather Summary September played both sides of the season this year, opening with heat that felt more like August and closing with cool air and a coastal storm more typical of October. Here's a quick rundown of how the month unfolded: - **Starting the fall season with record-breaking heat.** Much of the country spent the first half of the month feeling more like midsummer than early fall, with cities from coast to coast logging some of their hottest early-September days on record.[Read More \>\>\>](https://www.yahoo.com/news/weather-news/articles/where-fall-september-heat-wave-165159417.html) - **Fall finally made its move.** By mid-month, a blast of cool, dry air swept through the Midwest and Great Lakes, giving many of us our first real taste of sweater weather.[Read More \>\>\>](https://us.cnn.com/2026/09/13/weather/fall-temps-hit-midwest-and-northeast-climate) - **Closing out the month with an early nor'easter.** A rare September storm battered the Northeast with coastal flooding, heavy rain and high winds, weeks ahead of the usual nor'easter season.[Read More \>\>\>](https://www.npr.org/2026/09/26/nx-s1-5981392/noreaster-east-coast-floods) - **A hurricane season that didn't show up.** September is usually peak hurricane season, but a powerful El Niño kept the Atlantic so calm that the season set a satellite-era record for the latest first hurricane.[Read More \>\>\>](https://www.bbc.com/weather/articles/cwyzq4538j3o) - **What the Tempest network picked up:** wherever you're reading from, here's how September looked across our stations: the month's high came in at 117°F in Fort Mohave, Arizona, while  Wise River, Montana took the low at 21°F. ![A map of the high temperature recordings of September 2026.](https://news.tempest.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/Sept_2026_High%20(1).png?width=600&height=385&name=Sept_2026_High%20(1).png)  ![A map of the low temperature recordings of September 2026.](https://news.tempest.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/Sept_2026_Low.png?width=600&height=385&name=Sept_2026_Low.png) --- **Data Lookback: Early Season Nor'Easter** A strong early-season nor'easter hit parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast in late September, bringing coastal flooding, erosion, and power outages. Some areas picked up more than 6" of rain, with the highest totals across New Jersey, Long Island, and Southeast New England. Tempest stations captured the storm in real time, from rapid pressure changes as it strengthened offshore to the strongest wind gusts along the coast. See the maps, animations, and the top 10 gusts recorded by the Tempest network. [Read More \>\>\>](https://news.tempest.earth/september-2026-noreaster-tempest-stats) ![Noreaster\_Sept\_2026](https://news.tempest.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/Noreaster_Sept_2026.png?width=600&height=514&name=Noreaster_Sept_2026.png)   --- ## This Month in Weather History *Each month, This Month in Weather History looks back at a moment that shaped how we watch, measure, and forecast the weather. This October marks two milestones for American forecasting: the founding of the U.S. Weather Bureau in 1890 and of NOAA in 1970.* ![NOAANWSLogos](https://news.tempest.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/NOAANWSLogos.png?width=400&height=200&name=NOAANWSLogos.png) In 1890, if you wanted to know tomorrow's weather, the answer came from the U.S. Army. Since 1870, observers with the Army Signal Service had been taking readings across the country and sending them to Washington by telegraph, where forecasters pieced together some of the first national weather maps. Those early forecasts weren't even called forecasts. They were called "probabilities," and Cleveland Abbe, the scientist who issued them, became known to the public as "Old Probabilities." On October 1, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed the Organic Act, moving weather out of the military and into the Department of Agriculture as the civilian U.S. Weather Bureau. Agriculture was a natural fit. Farmers depended on forecasts to decide when to plant, harvest, and protect their crops. Weather had become a public service. Eighty years later, almost to the day, the Bureau got a new home. On October 3, 1970, the government created the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), bringing weather, ocean, and fisheries science under one agency. The Weather Bureau became the National Weather Service, the name it carries today. --- ## Tempest in the Elements     ![LouisC](https://news.tempest.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/LouisC.png?width=600&height=413&name=LouisC.png) This month our Tempest in the Elements comes from a full time RV setup! Thank you Louis C. for sharing! Want your setup or project to be featured? Send us a photo of your Tempest setup (or include it in your review), your creative weather project, or other unique ways you’re using your station - or use the hashtag #tempestwx. --- ## Other Weather News What's Making This El Niño So Strong?  Federal forecasters say the planet could see the strongest El Niño event on record this year, and it's already picked up nicknames like "Super El Niño" and "Godzilla El Niño." For the U.S., the northern half of the country tends to turn warmer and drier, while experts say this El Niño is strong enough that California is more likely to see extreme rain. [Read More \>\>\>](https://www.npr.org/2026/10/05/nx-s1-5981261/super-el-nino-floods-droughts) What to Plant in October for a Winter Garden Cooler days don't mean your garden is done for the year. October's still-warm soil and cooler air make it a great window for spring bulbs, cool-season vegetables, hardy perennials, and new trees and shrubs. The real deadline isn't the calendar, though. It's your first hard frost, and this zone-by-zone guide shows what to get in the ground before it arrives.  [Read More \>\>\>](https://www.homesandgardens.com/gardens/what-to-plant-in-october) Back to: [Newsletter](https://news.tempest.earth/topic/newsletter), [Articles](https://news.tempest.earth/topic/articles) - Share - - - - [mailto:?body=https://news.tempest.earth/tempest-news-october-2026](mailto:?body=https://news.tempest.earth/tempest-news-october-2026) [![tempest-news-01](https://news.tempest.earth/hs-fs/hubfs/tempest-news-01.png?width=300&height=99&name=tempest-news-01.png "tempest-news-01")](http://tempest.earth) © 2026 WeatherFlow-Tempest ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Tempest", "url" : "https://news.tempest.earth/author/tempest" }, "dateModified" : "2026-10-06T02:45:15.190Z", "datePublished" : "2026-10-06T02:45:15.000Z", "headline" : "Tempest News, October 2026", "image" : [ "https://news.tempest.earth/hubfs/Tempest%20News%20October%202026.png" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://news.tempest.earth/tempest-news-october-2026", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://news.tempest.earth/hubfs/wft-chat.jpg" }, "name" : "Tempest" } } ```