Mild Weather Warms Weekend

Harvard’s devastating loss to Yale at this weekend’s football game is not the only bizarre phenomenon storming Cambridge this fall.

Saturday’s loss, which broke Harvard’s five-year winning streak, also set the record for the warmest Game day in at least half a decade, according to national forecast provider AccuWeather.

According to meteorologist John M. Pachelco from national weather source AccuWeather, the average daytime temperature in November has been 4.5 degrees above normal—defined as the average temperature from 1970 to 2000.

“The fall in Cambridge hasn’t been warmer, but it has been longer,” Pachelco said.

Average temperatures from mid-September through November have been one degree above normal, said AccuWeather meteorologist John A. Gresiak. He added that the nights this fall have been generally milder, about 2-3 degrees above normal.

According to Gresiak, it is unusual that Cambridge has yet to have a night below freezing. Past records indicate that, by late October, there are usually several nights that dip below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Last fall, Cambridge experienced its first snowfall on October 30.

“Usually, people expect chilly nights and frost in the morning, but that hasn’t been the case,” Gresaik said.

Trang T. Pham ’10, a Boston native, said she has definitely noticed the warmer temperatures.

“The past two weeks have been amazing,” says Pham. “Usually, by this time, I would be wearing a winter jacket, but I’m still enjoying a chance to wear fall clothes.” Pham sad she believes that the lengthening of warm weather “is probably a result of global warming.”

Butler Professor of Environmental Studies Michael B. McElroy, however, said he cautions against “drawing grand conclusions.”

“If temperatures are still this warm a month from now, then we have reason to be worried.” McElroy said. “Although temperatures worldwide are generally warmer, this fall is not necessarily indicative of that and is probably just part of normal fluctuations.”

Kenneth W. McKinley ’08 said he does not mind the warmer weather.

“And although the sun made Saturday’s loss more bearable, I wouldn’t trade Cambridge for a slightly warmer New Haven.”

Tonight’s overall low temperature is expected to dip down to 29 degrees, according to weather.com.