Persistent warmth to maintain grip on parched Southwest

Although a large portion of the United States has been transported back to winter in recent days, the western U.S. has been mostly exempt from dealing with a winterlike chill. In fact, some areas have been dealing with a surge of summerlike warmth.

Over the weekend, record-breaking heat was common across portions of the Pacific Northwest while much of the rest of the West Coast stayed nearly seasonable. While Seattle soared to a record-tying high of 80 degrees Fahrenheit Saturday, 21 degrees above normal, Los Angeles topped out at a comfortable 71, 2 degrees below normal for mid-April. By Sunday, Los Angeles had soared to 89 degrees while Seattle remained above average at 79 degrees.

The same heat that made its way into parts of California Sunday and continued to push farther inland Monday afternoon and expand across much of the Southwest thanks to intense sunshine.

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This image, taken on Monday morning, April 19, 2021, shows a clear sky over much of the Southwest as a storm with clouds and snow affects parts of the central Rockies and Plains. (CIRA at Colorado State/GOES-West)

With the jet stream offset just to the north and east of the southwestern U.S. early this week, warmer conditions will be able to filter across the region.

High temperatures in the middle to upper 80s were common across interior areas of California, southern Nevada and portions of Arizona Monday afternoon. Portions of California's San Joaquin Valley flirted with high temperatures near the 90-degree mark.

During Tuesday afternoon, the core of the heat will shift slightly farther east into the Desert Southwest. High temperatures in the 90s will be common across much of southern Arizona and southeastern California, while portions of New Mexico and Utah will encounter conditions 5-10 degrees warmer than Monday.

After starting the month with an impressive 13 days in a row of high temperatures 90 degrees or greater, Phoenix enjoyed temperatures right around or just below seasonable levels last week. Temperatures in the 90s are forecast to make a return on Tuesday afternoon.

While the Southwest heats up steadily into midweek, the Pacific Northwest will remain unseasonably warm. Portions of western Washington and Oregon will continue to encounter temperatures 10-15 degrees above average for the middle of April.

Many cities along the I-5 corridor in Washington and Oregon are currently running temperature departures of 2-4 degrees above normal for the month. Portland and Medford, Oregon, are 2.5 and 3.8 degrees above normal, respectively, for the month as of April 19.

Warmth will stick around for much of the West Coast through midweek as a completely different scene unfolds farther east and a large swath of snow spreads across portions of the Central and Eastern states.

Much of the southwestern U.S. remains in the midst of severe, extreme or even exceptional drought according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The continued lack of significant precipitation in addition to persistently warm conditions may spell trouble for the upcoming wildfire season.

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