Record-challenging warmth to bring taste of spring to Midwest, Northeast
AccuWeather forecasters say record-challenging warmth will bring a taste of spring to the Midwest and Northeast during the first week of the new year.
A surge of unseasonable warmth is ringing in the new year across the eastern United States, AccuWeather forecasters say. The warm air will make it feel like spring has arrived several months ahead of schedule and challenge record highs that date back more than a century.
The final days of 2022 in the East were a roller coaster ride in terms of temperature swings. A blast of Arctic air left cities across the Midwest and Ohio Valley in a deep freeze, with many locations struggling to climb out of the single digits on Dec. 23. In the Northeast, high temperatures were in the teens on Christmas Eve. About one week later, temperatures were noticeably higher, soaring well above normal and into the 50s in many locations.
AccuWeather forecasters say that the mild conditions from the final days of 2022 are spilling over into the first days of January and will steadily become warmer through the middle of the week.
"A northward bulge in the jet stream across the eastern half of the country will allow warm, Gulf air to billow from the Southeast into the Ohio Valley and Northeast through midweek," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Renee Duff.
Afternoon high temperatures hovered around 15 degrees above normal during Monday afternoon across this zone, with widespread temperatures in the 50s and 60s F. But the warmth will become even more extreme on Tuesday and Wednesday when temperatures soar as much as 30 degrees above normal for early January.
"Usually, during the first days of January, cities like Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis average a high temperature in the upper 30s. On Tuesday, these cities reached 62 and 63 degrees, respectively, which is more akin to mid-April," Duff explained.
In St. Louis, the high temperature climbed to 72 degrees on Tuesday. The old record of 68 set in 1939 was surpassed at 1 p.m. It was even warmer in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the mercury soared to 74 degrees. That temperature in Little Rock fell just three degrees shy of record-tying status.
The abnormal warmth began to overspread the Northeast in earnest on Tuesday, including the cities of Washington, D.C., and New York City, which had Tuesday highs of 68 and 57, respectively. Both of those cities are forecast to have their peak temperatures on Wednesday, with highs in the middle to upper 60s expected. While these cities, and many others across the Northeast, are not expected to shatter records on Wednesday, temperatures will again soar more than 20 degrees above normal and come within a few degrees of those records.
However, as temperatures reach the upper 50s in Springfield, Massachusetts, a new daily record could be set there. It may also be just warm enough for a new record high temperature to be reached in Philadelphia, with a high forecast in the middle 60s for the City of Brotherly Love. Other records in jeopardy Wednesday include Chattanooga, Tennessee (high of 71 forecast) and Charleston, South Carolina (high of 73 forecast).
A potent storm unfolding across the central U.S. will eventually bring an end to the springlike conditions. As of Monday, this same storm was in the process of dumping heavy snow in the northern Plains and igniting severe thunderstorms across the southern tier of the country.
"Behind the storm, chillier air will return to the Midwest and the Northeast for the end of the week, but a deep freeze like the pre-Christmas cold is not expected," Duff said.
After being in the 50s and 60s, high temperatures will fall into the 30s and 40s. Even with the drastic change, temperatures through the weekend for cities like Cincinnati, Detroit and Baltimore are still expected to be around normal for January.
The return to normal conditions in the Northeast may allow for some snow to fall before the week concludes.
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