No trick! Halloween temperatures soar above normal in Northeast

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AP) — Trick-or-treaters in the Northeast who in past years would bundle up under their Bluey or Beetlejuice costumes comfortably roamed neighborhoods in unseasonably mild temperatures Thursday.

New York City hit 81 degrees (27.2 Celsius) on Halloween, with Boston topping out at 78 degrees (25.5 C). Caribou, Maine, hit a high of 75 degrees (23.8 C), well above the Halloween average of 47 degrees (8 C).

Buffalo, New York, saw a record-breaking 78 degrees — a year after light snow fell on Halloween.

In Schenectady, parents walked kids dressed as ninjas, superheroes and princesses down residential streets before the sun went down. The temperature was in the 70s, and people were loving it.

“It’s not a typical Halloween by any means,” Tom Kaczmarek said as he accompanied his 4-year-old daughter, who was dressed as a ghost. “But it’s nice not to have to cover our daughter in a coat, so she can wear her costume fully and proudly.”

Twelve-year-old Emma Abraham said she was a little hot in her Joker costume, but she was going to pull through.

“These temperatures are running on average about 20 degrees warmer than normal,” said Samantha Borisoff, a climatologist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. She noted that weather can vary widely in October, a transitional month between seasons.

“So every Halloween can be very different,” she said.

This year was a far cry from 2011, when an early Nor’easter just before Halloween dumped heavy, wet snow around New York's Hudson Valley region. In 2012, the New York City area was reeling on Halloween after Superstorm Sandy ravaged the northeastern coastline Oct. 29, causing about $65 billion in damage.

Elsewhere, parts of eastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin were getting their first snow of the season Thursday. The National Weather Service said there was high uncertainty about accumulations because the ground is still warm. Snow melted when it hit the pavement in downtown Minneapolis.

But revelers in the Northeast were enjoying the treat while it lasted. Temperatures were expected to return to normal ranges starting Friday.

Nelson Rose wore a bewigged scary clown mask in the late-day Schenectady sun, but he said he was comfortable as he rolled a double stroller for his grandchildren.

“The end of October and we’re still getting this 70-degree weather,” he said. “I’m not complaining at all.”

Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski contributed from Minneapolis.

A boy dressed in a firefighter costume arrives to watch a Halloween parade, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Mamaroneck, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

A man carries a child dressed as a king upon arriving to watch a Halloween Parade, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Mamaroneck, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Parents attend a Halloween parade compare costumes, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Mamaroneck, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Children at Daniel Warren Elementary School walk in a Halloween parade, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Mamaroneck, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Children at Daniel Warren Elementary School walk in a Halloween parade, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Mamaroneck, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A grand jury in Nevada has again indicted Nathan Chasing Horse on charges that he sexually abused Indigenous women and girls, reviving a sweeping criminal case against the former “Dances with Wolves” actor.

The 21-count indictment unsealed Thursday in Clark County District Court, which includes Las Vegas, expands on his previous charges of sexual assault, lewdness and kidnapping to include charges of producing and possessing child sexual abuse materials.

It comes after more than a year of delayed court proceedings that culminated last month in the Nevada Supreme Court ordering the dismissal of Chasing Horse's original 18-count indictment. The court sided with Chasing Horse, saying in its scathing order that prosecutors had abused the grand jury process. But the court left open the possibility for charges to be refiled.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson quickly vowed to seek another indictment. Neither Wolfson nor a spokesperson for his office immediately responded Thursday to phone or emailed requests for comment.

Best known for portraying the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 movie “Dances with Wolves,” Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.

After starring in the Oscar-winning film, according to prosecutors, Chasing Horse began propping himself up as a self-proclaimed Lakota medicine man while traveling around North America to perform healing ceremonies.

Prosecutors said his position in the community granted him access to vulnerable women and girls for decades until his arrest last January near Las Vegas. He has been jailed ever since.

Chasing Horse's arrest reverberated around Indian Country. Law enforcement in the U.S. and Canada quickly followed up with more criminal charges, saying that his arrest helped corroborate long-standing allegations against him, including on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana where tribal leaders had banished Chasing Horse in 2015 amid allegations of human trafficking.

Authorities in Alberta, Canada, have acknowledged that their case is largely symbolic. Chasing Horse — who faces decades in a Nevada prison if convicted — might not ever return to Canada.

“At the end of the day,” Sgt. Nancy Farmer of the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service has said, “it is important for us to have these warrants in the system so our victims know they’ve been heard. It’s extremely important that we continue to support them that way.”

In Las Vegas, Chasing Horse had pleaded not guilty to the original charges. His new lawyer didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment, and his former public defender, Kristy Holston, said she had no comment on the new indictment.

The latest indictment also accuses Chasing Horse of filming himself having sex with one of his accusers when she was younger than 14. Prosecutors say the footage, taken in 2010 or 2011, was found on cellphones in a locked safe inside the North Las Vegas home that Chasing Horse is said to have shared with five wives, including the girl in the videos.

When the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse's initial indictment, the judges said they were not weighing in on his guilt or innocence, calling the allegations against him serious. But the court said that prosecutors improperly provided the grand jury with a definition of grooming without expert testimony, and faulted them for withholding from the grand jury inconsistent statements made by one of his accusers.

Chasing Horse's legal issues have been unfolding at the same time lawmakers and prosecutors around the U.S. are funneling more resources into cases involving Native women, including human trafficking and murders.

FILE - Nathan Chasing Horse sits in Las Vegas court, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Ty O'Neil, File)