Early Signs of Winter

A Gulf of Alaska storm with hurricane force winds has reached 964 mb (28.47 in).
Buoy 46066, 380 nautical miles southwest of Kodiak, recently reported 28.9 foot waves with winds gusting to 46.6 knots.

Freeze (light blue) warnings have already been issued as far south Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles.Frost advisories (darker blue band immediately below freeze warnings) extend even further south and now include Peoria and Quincy in Illinois, Kansas City in Missouri, and Hutchinson, Dodge City and Garden City in Kansas. According to the Farmer's Almanac, the average frost date for Chicago is Oct. 24, for Quincy is Oct. 22 and for Kansas City is Oct. 28. Freeze watches include Amarillo, Tx and Woodward, Ok. The light blue in Arkansas is for flood advisories (not freeze warnings).

Just south of Hudson Bay is a 210 knot jet streak - something that would be noteworthy even in January.
Snow is quickly piling up in the Northern Rockies.
Idaho, Wyoming and Montana had a heavy snow on September 30th and again on October 4th and 5th. Colorado actually saw snow in the high elevations on September 21st.

Light snow fell today in North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa.

And record cold is expected - even below zero - in Montana.