---

Weather this weekend is about to take a seasonal turn, but the month leading up to it has been almost balmy - and boy, has that confused the plants.

Some flowering bushes, unsure where they are on the calendar at this point, have begun putting out buds.

"We have been in an above normal temperature-wise regime, but that will come to a close over the weekend," said Charlie Foley, a climate specialist for the National Weather Service in Taunton. "It's been a very untypical November, but we have these swings in temperatures. It doesn't really foretell a larger picture of global warming or anything."

Temperatures this fall largely have been in the 50s and 60s.

This uncommonly wet week has also been particularly warm. Temperatures in Attleboro were within a few degrees of record highs much of the week, and Thursday and Friday shattered long-standing records for the dates. Friday's high temperature of 68 degrees at noon broke the 1961 record by 2 degrees. And Thursday's 73 degrees eclipsed a 50-year-old record by 1 degree, the Attleboro Water Department said.

"I think, overall, we have had a mild fall and now, as we go into winter, one doesn't have to predict what will be coming," Foley said.

As for the weather swing that brought out the buds, Eric Osborne, owner of Osborne Nursery and Landscaping in Plainville, says not to worry. The return to normal weather is unlikely to harm plants or bushes.

One possibility is that if a plant or flowering bush has bloomed now, there could be fewer flowers in the spring, he said. But the wild swings in weather won't kill them.

Osborne said most people have winterized their plants and shrubs by now, anyway.

As for Friday's early morning storm that swept up the coast after sparking deadly tornadoes in North Carolina and prompting flood watch and high wind advisories here, it didn't turn out to be as mighty as feared. Some 1.59 inches of rain fell, far short of the upper end of the forecast of up to 3 inches. And the winds didn't pack as powerful a punch as expected.