Coeur d’Alene set a record for October snowfall Monday afternoon.*

Did you notice that *?

Press Climatologist Cliff Harris could barely hide the regret in his voice when he acknowledged Tuesday that the all-time October snowfall record did not fall at his weather station on Player Drive in the heart of Coeur d’Alene. But like it being 5 o’clock somewhere, the Coeur d’Alene snowfall record fell somewhere, too.

On busy students and dead people.

“At my weather station I had 5.5 inches in October, well short of the 6.8 inch record for the month that was set in 1957,” Harris lamented. “But downtown got over 7 inches, so it’s a record for Coeur d’Alene.”

To be precise, record watchers, the weather station at North Idaho College registered 7.1 inches of snow for the month and the cemetery just north of downtown saw 7.2 inches. No more snow this month is expected, Harris said, putting paid to the October 2019 record book.

What a wild, weird month it’s been.

Following the third snowfall of the month — the 9th, 26th and 28th all got unseasonably plowed — temperatures plunged Tuesday morning. Coeur d’Alene shivered in 14 degrees, beating the record set on that date in 1923 by two degrees. Spirit Lake got down to 8, and Hayden was in between at 11 degrees for the low. But count your blessings: Harris rattled off a handful of Montana cities that woke up to temperatures below zero on Tuesday, remarkable, he said, for this time of year.

“Where’s the global warming when you need it?” he quipped.

Harris said Halloween night will be chilly but not too scary temperature-wise, with prime trick-or-treating time — 7 p.m. or so — expected to be in the upper 30s or lower 40s. Harris did issue one warning, however.

“I’ve seen people putting leaves out in the street,” he said. “Please don’t.”

The berms and bunches of leaves by the curbs can force little ghosties and goblins into the street, where drivers might not see them and tragedy awaits. Harris is merely reminding folks that the Coeur d’Alene Street Department won’t be picking up leaves until well after Halloween, so please hold off until the weekend.

And one more word to the wise from the weather guy: Get your snow tires on no later than Nov. 11. Cliff thinks you’re going to need them.