Quote from Maverick74:
Vols are a function of time. As time passes, especially close to expiration, vols naturally drift higher due to the strong bids in the options. You will always see this when stocks report inside of 3 weeks or so to expiration. If this were an expiration week, front month vols would actually be over 100. It's not that they are taking the vols higher, its just that the options are being bid into a short duration period.
This is why back month options trade at lower vols, they have way more time. This is also why if you sell front month options into an earnings report hoping to earn decay, your position won't decay, it will actually give you negative decay which is a function of the rising vols into the report.