May-like temperatures to blossom in Northeast this week
A return of wintry weather followed by gusty winds throughout the Northeast is coming to an end on Monday evening, with warm weather taking its place.
The weather in the East took a wet and wintry turn over the weekend, with some areas experiencing gusty winds and even snow squalls, but AccuWeather forecasters say that a milder and more familiar pattern will soon return.
"Another noticeable change in the weather pattern is on the way for the Ohio Valley and much of the Northeast, with a return to warmer conditions," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Renee Duff.
The upward temperature trend began across most locations on Tuesday, although temperatures are likely to peak in each region on different days.
Temperatures in cities such as Indianapolis and Detroit already started to climb Monday before peaking on Wednesday afternoon a few degrees above 70.
Farther east, in locations like Washington, D.C., and Raleigh, North Carolina, temperatures are forecast to approach or even to reach 80 degrees, but not until Thursday or Friday. A high temperature in Raleigh or Washington, D.C., in the upper 70s is more common for late April or even early May.
"This high of temperatures is certainly above the historical average and even the highest so far this spring. However, most locations are likely to fall short of record levels," Duff explained.
March has been running warmer than the historical average thus far for the interior Northeast and parts of the Great Lakes, even with the active weather pattern and a brief spell of cooler conditions over the weekend.
Buffalo, New York, is taking the lead as one of the warmest locations. Since the first of the month, the Queen City was running roughly 15 degrees F above the historical average for the first half of March. Cities like Cleveland and Pittsburgh are not far behind, with temperatures more than 10 F degrees above the average for early March.
Closer to the Atlantic Ocean, temperatures have also been well above the norm. As of the end of Wednesday, month-to-date temperatures were running 8.6 degrees F above the historical average in Philadelphia and 8.5 degrees above in New York City.
The next opportunity for wet weather in this region will be Thursday as a storm strengthens in the Midwest. This storm is likely to bring some rain, and even the risk for severe weather, to parts of the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley by the end of the day, before spreading over the Northeast and Tennessee River Valley by Friday.
"The rain from this past weekend along the Northeast and New England coast has left some river levels running quite high," said Duff.
As of Wednesday afternoon, many rivers that had surged in recent days were leveling off and beginning to recede.
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