How much of a role does the weather play in Election Day voter turnout?
The answer is it plays a huge role. Especially in national elections deciding the U.S. President and Senate seats.
The milder the weather, the better the voter turnout. These environmental factors have a big impact on the decisions we make to get out or stay at home. And for some voters in regions prone to adverse weather, the forecast trend leading up to a November election often determines if voters mail-in their ballots ahead of time or wait until the big day.
While Tuesday’s forecast doesn’t determine how many states will go red or blue, it is looking like a big win for voters casting their ballots across the county.
The Election Day forecast doesn’t feature any major weather disturbances. That means no significant storms are expected.
With an unseasonably warm pattern across much of the nation, temperatures over the next week will be mostly above-average. Many southern states could still be looking at near record breaking high temperatures on Election Tuesday.
Here are Election Day forecasts across the nation:
Cincinnati: Mostly sunny, 69
New York: Sunny, 60
Atlanta: Mostly Sunny, 72
Denver: Sunny, 68
San Francisco: Mostly sunny, 67
St. Louis: Partly sunny, 69
Washington: Sunny, 64
Dallas: Mostly cloudy, 20 percent rain chance, 73
While the previous Presidential Election of Nov. 6, 2012, did not have any major weather impacts on the day of the election, it saw crippling weather occurrences one week before the election and just one day after the election.
You might remember on Oct. 28 through 30, Post Tropical Cyclone Sandy brought significant storm surge, heavy rain, coastal flooding and extreme high winds to coastal New Jersey, parts of New England, Pennsylvania and areas southward through the Delmarva. This weather event indirectly impacted voters in that region trying to recover from the storm.
