Had to toss the car trunk this morning to find the ice scraper. There was a pretty good coating on the windshield as I stepped outside. The low before sunrise on the WeatherDeck today was just 30 degrees, the first frost for us.

Not so cold in the city, or even out at BWI. The official low at the airport was 34 degrees. That was 5 degrees cooler than the average low for the date, but 8 degrees warmer than the record low for an Oct. 29 at BWI - 26 degrees, set back in 2001.

At the Maryland Science Center, beside the still-warm harbor water, the low was just 44 degrees.  Here are some other low readings from around the area:

Dulles International:  31 degrees

Reagan National:  41 degrees

Frederick Airport:  28 degrees

Hagerstown:  32 degrees

Martinsburg, WV:  28 degrees

Morgantown, WV:  30 degrees

For the record, the airport has now received 5.85 inches of rain this month, and it does not look like we'll have any more this week. Here's the forecast. That leaves us with a 2.99-inch surplus for the month of October, the first time since April we've had any extra rain. We're still about 5.5 inches short for the year.

The sunny skies mean starry nights. If you haven't looked already, I urge you to take a look at Comet Holmes, now visible in the evening sky. Here's our previous post on the topic. Here's one with a star map.

I had my first look last night.

It was clearly visible to the naked eye, although it looked no different than nearby stars. With binoculars, however, it was obviously very different - a swollen ball of gas and dust that looked sort of like a gray billiard ball. No tail yet.  With a small telescope it was pretty much the same as in binoculars, only bigger. And weirder. Go see it. Take the kids. Here's a photo gallery.

If you're down at the Inner Harbor, look for Herman Heyn, Baltimore's Streetcorner astronomer. He introduced plenty of people to the new comet this weekend.