While El Nino is expected to wreak havoc with weather in America, the weather in Maine has been drier and warmer than average.

Although the fall of 2015 has had a more summer-like feel at times, it has by-and-large been an average year, according the National Weather Service (NWS) in Gray.

NWS Meteorologist James Brown said the weather hasn't been exceptionally warm, but that it has been warmer than usual.

“(Friday, Nov. 6) is actually quite a bit above normal, but we should be back in the 40s and 50s by this weekend,” he said. “So, we'll be where we usually are. Is it above normal? It has been but these things balance out.”

A prime example of that was October's temperatures.

The month followed the normal path – a warm start with a cool middle – but then things started heating up.

At the end of the month the average temperature was 49 degrees, which was two-tenths of a degree warmer than usual, according to NWS weather tracking for the coast.

For the talk that this fall has been warmer than most in recent memory, especially the harshly-cold 2014 fall and winter, there is evidence to the contrary. On average, October 2014 was actually warmer than October 2015. In fact, only one October was warmer than 2014's since the records have been kept and that was 1947, when the average temperature was 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit.

The coldest October on record was 1976 with an average temperature of 43.6 F.

Brown said the final 2015 fall report won't be available until November is over, but said he expected this year to be warmer than usual.

But with the warm came the cool, according to the National Weather Service's historical weather tracker.

For as warm as it was throughout the month, there were also nine days where the temperature was below freezing. That was the most below-freezing days in the month since 2002 when a new record was established with 15 days below the 32-degree mark.

This year the first day that recorded a freezing temperature was Oct. 17, while the average first-freeze is Oct. 9. Last year was the latest first freeze on record, as the 32-degree threshold wasn't crossed until Nov. 3.

One of the reasons this October might have seemed warmer was because the coast only received half the average rainfall for the month.

Only 2.36 inches of rain were recorded in Portland, the closest measuring station along the coast. That is two-and-a-half inches lower than average and most of it came from an Oct. 29 downpour that saw 1.58 inches.

Snowfall is rarely recorded in Portland with the Weather Service reporting that only 12 of 135 recorded years have seen snow in October. The last time recordable snow fell in the Halloween storm of 2011, when 5.3 inches of snow fell.

What does this slightly-warmer-than-usual fall mean for the winter ahead?

No telling, Brown said.

“We do 30- 60- 90-day forecasts, but we're happy when we're (accurately predicting) three to four days out,” he said.