Quantifying the Weekend Heat Wave

The media's all abuzz about this weekend's heat wave in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Here are the maps for Saturday:

Look at those 70s creeping up into Virginia, Maryland and Delaware!

Here are the stats for Saturday in selected cities:

Richmond, VA: Forecast 73 (NWS 73) Record 73
New York City: Forecast 65 (NWS 66) Record 63
State College, PA: Forecast 61 (NWS ) Record 62

So yes, it's probably going to be record-breaking in many areas. But is it unprecedented? If you look at the next 15 days, that same period in 2005 actually had warmer temperatures here in Central PA:

COURTESY ACCUWEATHER.COM PLANNER

And we all remember last year's record warm January.

So, yes, it's impressive, but not unprecedented. What's interesting is that the high temperatures have remained above normal in much of the Northeast for nearly a month now:

But even that's not unprecedented. According to AccuWeather.com data, the temperature stayed at or above normal here in State College, PA from Dec. 22, 2005 until February 6, 2006.