EXCERPT:
Story by Ian Livingston • 1d
5:45 p.m. — Another day of widespread record warmth
Over 100 warm weather records records weree set Tuesday, for the second day in a row. The records include a number of all-time highs for all of February
in what has become one of the most significant winter heat events observed in the eastern United States.
Cities that hit record highs for February – and in many cases any winter month – on Tuesday include Milwaukee (72 degrees); Madison, Wis. (70 degrees);
Springfield, Ill. (80 degrees); Detroit (73 degrees); Saginaw, Mich. (73 degrees); Toledo (72 degrees) and St Louis (85 degrees).
Kenosha, Wisc., where it hit 75, also appears to have set a new February record high for all of Wisconsin.
As a cold front plunges southward and eastward, tornado watches are up in parts of the Midwest, including Chicago, while locations in the Northern Plains
deal with snow and temperature drops of more than 50 degrees since Monday.
--Original article from Tuesday morning--
It’s still February, but temperatures have soared to levels more typical of summer in the Central United States and more unseasonably warm weather is
still to come.
Monday kicked off this rare and intense winter heat wave with more than 100 calendar day record highs from Texas to Minnesota. Record highs for the
entirety of February were also set, including in Minneapolis and Omaha, which soared to 65 and 80 degrees, respectively.
The mercury rose as high as 100 degrees in Texas; Dallas soared to 93 degrees, a calendar day record and its highest temperature so early in the year
since 1996. Other notable highs included 88 in Oklahoma City, 80 in St. Louis and 71 in Chicago.
A similar number of record daily and monthly highs are predicted Tuesday.
Until this warm spell ends midweek, most of the Plains, Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast will witness temperatures around 30 degrees above average or
even higher. This brings 60s and 70s to the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region, with 80s and 90s in the central and southern Plains and Mid-South.
A potent low-pressure system sweeping the nation’s northern tier is drawing the unusually warm and moist air northward, before an intense cold front
brings a sudden drop in temperatures.
Spells of abnormally warm weather have been frequent this winter, especially this month and in December. Human-caused climate change and the powerful El
Niño climate pattern have fueled the warmth, and this winter could well become the warmest on record in the contiguous United States.
Because of the warmth, the extent of snow cover over the Lower 48 states is, by far, the lowest in at least the past two decades.
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