Wide Temperature Range in PA

Pennsylvanians this morning awoke to a wide range of temperatures. While the temperature here at my house in State College, PA was 38 degrees at 7 AM, it was in the 60s only 50 miles to my west. Below is the (official stations) temperature map from this morning.

Zooming out to the Northeast temperature map, it was clear that the warmth was being pulled up the Appalachians from the Deep South. What gives?

If we take a look at the surface weather map, you can see that a warm front is spreading over southwest Pennsylvania. What this reminds us is that wind travels counterclockwise and inward with low pressure systems. If you draw that out on the map, that will mean that the wind is coming from the south. The "front" of that warm push is the warm front.

If you look at the "streamlines" wind map this morning (which simply shows arrows to indicate wind flow) you'll see that the wind is coming from the Deep South up the warm front this morning, into Pennsylvania.

Once the cold front passes though, we'll be plunged into much colder weather this evening. The AccuWeather.com Planner graph of hourly temperatures today says this will happen shortly after 1 PM.