Central PA Extreme Temperature Range Friday

UPDATE: I added a paragraph about general and record diurnal temperature differences at the bottom.

I remember once when I was a kid living in the foothills of North Carolina, a day where the temperature started out in the 20's but rose into the 70's. Such a rare temperature range in one day can only happen in the East during Spring or Fall. I hadn't seen many, if any days like that again until Friday here in State College, Pennsylvania, home of AccuWeather HQ [Google Map]. The weather station at my house registered a low of 26 and a high of 70, a rise of 44 degrees in 10 hours!

I couldn't find any other local stations that had such a range. I am in a typically-cold-spot. The local University Park Airport only had a range of 33 degrees. A runner up was nearby Williamsport which went from 33 to 75 (42 degrees). The normal range for State College this time of year is only 21 degrees in a day, and this rise would be equivalent to seeing a high of 103 or a low of -6, if the temperature moved that much from normal.

HOW DOES THIS COMPARE TO RECORD DAILY CHANGES?

Now, as I said, this is unusual by East Coast standards on a day with "steady" weather (not with a big frontal passage). Daily "diurnal") temperature extremes are not uncommon in the West, especially in desert areas, for example Galivan, New Mexico rose from -31 to +43 degrees (a 74-degree change!) in 1949. A few stations have even set both record lows AND highs on the same day (for example Pine Valley, Nevada rose from 30 to 97 degrees in 1989). Both of those stats were taken from Chris Burt [JessePedia], Author of "Extreme Weather" (you can search the book on Amazon for more).