ELKHART — Area residents and gardens experienced their coldest night of the season Monday morning with lows dipping to 30 degrees in Goshen.

Morning motorists whose cars sit outside were greeted early Monday morning with a thick coat of frost on windshields that needed scraping.

Normal lows in northern Indiana are usually closer to 45 degrees at this time of year, according to the National Weather Service.

According to the Midwestern Regional Climate Center, Sunday’s overnight low was slightly ahead of northern Indiana’s normal schedule for frost and freeze. Much of Michiana normally does not have lows dipping to freezing until Oct. 11-20.

Freezing overnight conditions with an average of 28 degrees normally don’t happen in northern Indiana until the final week of October, according to the climate center.

Cool temperatures are expected to continue through the week, but temps won’t be quite as cold. Overnight lows Monday night were expected to be about 40. Today’s high will be about 66 and the low tonight will be 42, according to AccuWeather.com.

Wednesday’s overnight low is expected to be in the lower 30s.

No precipitation is expected through Friday, according to AccuWeather.

The long-range winter forecast calls for below-normal snowfall for much of the upper Midwest.

“Across the upper Midwest, cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, I think, are going to miss out on the big systems down to the south as far as snowfall goes. I think they are going to have to rely on more clipper systems coming down out of the north and west,” said Paul Pastelok, a long-range meteorologist for AccuWeather.