NOW THAT THE clocks have turned back for the end of daylight savings time, the sun went down Monday just after 4:30 p.m. in the area. The sun’s early exit was made a little less painful by a spectacular sunset, captured here at Lake Mary in Waucedah Township. (Paula Pieropon photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — Fall weather will take a U-turn from winter to summer with high temperatures climbing into the mid-60s this week after a near-record amount of snow in October.

“Mother Nature is about to give anyone who is not yet ready for the onset of winter a little throwback to early fall in the form of a mini November heat wave,” AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.

Recent wintry weather is due to the jet stream dipping south, allowing colder air from Canada to spill into the Midwest, Sosnowski said. For the week ahead, the jet stream has moved north, allowing warmth to move up.

Meanwhile, the long-range outlook for the Upper Peninsula is mostly neutral.

The Climate Prediction Center calls for a 38% chance of above-normal temperatures from now through January at Iron Mountain-Kingsford, and a 28% of below-normal. Although La Nina conditions are somewhat of a wild card, the three-month outlook on precipitation suggests normal trends at least through January.

La Nina, the periodic cooling of sea-surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean, could lead to heavier snowfalls as winter takes hold.

“With La Nina well established and expected to persist through the upcoming 2020 winter season, we anticipate the typical, cooler, wetter North, and warmer, drier South, as the most likely outcome of winter weather that the U.S. will experience this year,” said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the CPC.

Below-normal temperatures are favored in southern Alaska and from the northern Pacific Northwest into the Northern Plains, with equal chances for below-, near- or above-average temperatures in the remaining regions. Wetter-than-average conditions are most likely across the northern tier of the U.S., extending from the Pacific Northwest, across the Northern Plains, Great Lakes and into the Ohio Valley, as well as Hawaii and northern Alaska, Halpert said.

Temperatures in October at Iron Mountain-Kingsford averaged 39.5 degrees, which was nearly 7 degrees below normal. According to observations at the Iron Mountain-Kingsford Wastewater Treatment Plant, it was the second-coldest October this century. The coldest was in 2002, when temperatures averaged 39.4 degrees.

It was the fifth-coldest October since record-keeping began in the early 1900s — only slightly warmer than the record years of 1917 and 1925, when October temperatures averaged 38 degrees.

The highest temperature was 74 degrees on Oct. 5 and Oct. 9. Colder weather took hold at mid-month, as overnight lows were below freezing every day from Oct. 15 through Halloween. The lowest reading was 17 degrees on Oct. 26.

Total snowfall measured 6 inches, trailing only the 8.1 inches that fell in October 1933. Typical snowfall for October is just 0.3 inches. Water equivalent precipitation was 0.15 inches below the norm at 2.37 inches.

The U.S. Drought Monitor shows no areas of concern in the Upper Peninsula or northern Wisconsin.