Usually by mid-November, students are wearing gloves, hats and big bubble jackets. But if someone had looked around two weeks ago, they could have seen shorts, T-shirts and light jackets.

The weather is not much different than normal, NIU meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste said.

“Overall, it has been colder than normal. September and October were cold,” Sebenste said. “We don’t have the official numbers for this month yet, but it looks like the temperatures have been above normal.”

The reason for the warm weather is because the Arctic air has been bottled up in central and northern Canada and hasn’t made it to the United States yet.

The first major sheet of Arctic air hit states like North and South Dakota and Iowa. Over the next couple weeks, it’ll work its way over here, Sebenste said.

As for snow, it will arrive later than expected, but it will come.

“We might get snow later next week,” Sebenste said. “We cannot be sure, but it’s possible.”

Another reason for the warmer weather is because the temperature over the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean has been warmer.

“The water temperature does affect the weather over here to some extent,” Sebenste said. “It controls the jet stream and the location of where the warm and cold air will go. It has been pushing warm air into our area.”

Areas in the Southeast and Southwest also have been warmer than usual, but that also will change.

In spite of some people’s concern, the warm weather has nothing to do with global warming, Sebenste said.

“Last winter, we were much colder,” he added.

Because El Nino has been affecting us for so long, people might have forgotten what winter feels like.

“We are not affected by El Nino or La Nina this year,” Sebenste said. “It’s a better chance we’ll have a colder than normal winter.”

As for a white Christmas, it’s definitely a possibility.

Sebenste warns not to be fooled by the mild November.

“It can only break and a nasty winter can come,” Sebenste said. “It looks like we will have really cold air next week, so watch out!”