AccuWeather.com

By Bill Deger, Meteorologist

Feb 1, 2012; 5:52 AM ET

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Those proverbial "where's winter?" questions will continue to crop up for now as unusual warmth will persist across the mid-Atlantic and Southeast for at least another day.

For most areas, it will feel more like April than early February with temperatures expected to challenge records sitting some 15 to 25 degrees above normal.

A dome of cold air has been sitting over Alaska and northern Canada most of the winter, and it remains locked up there today as high pressure spins off the East Coast. The flow around the high will continue to send the warmth north.

This means that many will be able to trade in that heavy winter jacket for short-sleeve shirts.

A cold front slicing east across the Midwest will knock temperatures down several degrees from Chicago to Detroit, but the thermometer will still run well above normal thanks to mild Pacific air flowing in behind the front.

After starting the day with temperatures several degrees above normal afternoon highs, the mercury will easily soar into the 60s and even low 70s in some areas by the afternoon from the Ohio Valley to the East Coast.

New England will stay cooler thanks to more clouds, but even here temperatures will reach into the 50s across central and southern portions of the region.

Farther south, some clouds and a few spotty showers could help to cool the air a bit, meaning some locations may fail to be warmer than Tuesday.

After the warmth on Tuesday tied or set new record highs in Roanoke, Washington (Dulles Airport), Atlantic City and Binghamton, among others, warm spells on this date in 1989 and 2002 will keep many records today out of reach.

If showers prove to be more isolated in nature, and the sun shines for a good part of the day, it is not out of the question that temperatures could rise several degrees above the forecast temperatures, breaking records.

The unusual warmth is something that residents have become accustomed to in this "winter that wasn't." Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski noted in a recent trip to Raleigh, N.C., that there were signs of the consistently mild temperatures all across the city.

"There were some trees that were already beginning to blossom," said Pydynowski.

While the mid-Atlantic will cool off on Thursday, Raleigh and the rest of the Southeast will remain quite mild through Friday, with temperatures remaining at least 10 to 20 degrees above normal.