Taste of spring to break eastern US out of arctic grip by midweek
The bitter cold gripping the eastern United States will finally give way to a taste of early spring by midweek.
The cold that followed the early weekend snowstorm held firm over much of the East on Monday.
As the high pressure ushering in the cold shifts offshore, the door will finally open for temperatures to rebound as the rest of the week progresses.
Milder air arrived over the southern Plains and Front Range of the Rockies on Monday.
“That warmer air will steadily spread eastward on Tuesday, fully reaching the East on Wednesday,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Joe Lundberg said.
Before the warmer air arrives, snow and ice will spill over from the Great Lakes into the central Appalachians and New England and cause some slick travel into Tuesday night.
By midweek, highs will be 25 to 35 degrees greater than Sunday’s frigid highs.
Where snow is on the ground, temperatures will take a little extra time to rebound and fog can develop as the milder air pours in.
Fog issues leading to reduced visibility for motorists and airline passengers can start on Tuesday night, including along the I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to New York City to Boston.
Residents and crews should work to clear storm drains of snow to prevent street flooding as the snow melts.
Since Lundberg anticipates the next storm to track from the Great Lakes to southern Quebec, further warming will come later in the week.
“Thursday will be downright balmy in the East,” he said. Thursday will feel more like an early spring day.
Temperatures on Thursday will soar into the 50s as far north as Syracuse, New York, and Boston, making for the warmest day so far in 2017.
Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., should flirt with or crack the 60-degree mark. Highs near 70 F will erase any memories of the wintry mess that started last weekend in Atlanta.
Dry weather should complement Thursday's warmth along most of the East Coast, allowing residents anxious to spend time outdoors to do so.
How quick a new cold front presses into the Northeast will determine if the warmth hangs on into Friday.
The turn to colder weather behind that front could set the stage for another winter storm this weekend.
The cold could also sink into the mid-Atlantic and the Piedmont of the Carolinas for a time this weekend, but the rest of the South should stay very mild during the coming weekend.
Any intrusion of arctic air that far south will get “stonewalled by a strong high developing from the Gulf of Mexico to the southwestern Atlantic Ocean,” Lundberg said.
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