From NWS
1963: Unseasonably hot autumn weather peaked on October 5-6 with most stations across about the western two thirds of Iowa tying or breaking their all-time October warm temperature records on one or both of those days. On the 5th Forest City and Shenandoah tied the all-time Iowa October record with a high of 97 F. Other high temperatures reported that afternoon included 96 F at Allison and Webster City, 95 F at Chariton, Des Moines, and Mason City, and 94 F at Ames, Rock Rapids, and Sidney. After a high of 95 F on the 5th Des Moines reported a high of 94 F on the 6th, and aside from these two days the warmest temperature on record at Des Moines in the month of October is 92 F. The warm weather continued for most of October and the first freezes of the season were generally not reported until the final week of the month. In many areas this remains the latest first freeze on record and the month finished as the warmest October on record in Iowa.

This Day in National/World Weather History …

5 October 1786 → The Pumpkin Flood of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania got its name because the river was filled with pumpkins that were washed away by the high waters. 5 October 1864 → A devastating cyclone that killed 80,000 people in Calcutta, India, prompted the British East India Company to establish a telegraphic storm-warning service in 1865. 5 October 1893 → On the southeast coast of Louisiana a 22 foot surge was brought by a Category 4 hurricane that killed more than two thousand people. 5 October 1917 → Sentinel, AZ reached the hottest October temperature ever in the U.S. of 116F.

Posted under Weather History