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Subscribe to RSSTwo-thirds of the United States will be enjoying unseasonably warm weather Tuesday. TODAY's Al Roker looks at what's behind this late-winter warm spell.
Expect records for high temps to be broken all week across the Northeast and Midwest, a rare event given that we're still in winter.
"We may be seeing about a week where we are going to be possibly breaking or at least coming close to temperature records," said National Weather Service meteorologist Byron Paulson.
It is not unusual to see record high temperatures for a day or two in March, but a week is rare, he said.
"The jet stream, which would normally be cutting across the middle of the country, is way up north into Canada" and keeping the cold weather there, said NBC TODAY show weather anchor Al Roker, leading to warm weather in the U.S.
Forecasts called for records or near-record highs on Wednesday and Thursday in the mid to upper 70s in Chicago. The warmth also brought the threat of thunderstorms to the Chicago area.
In North Dakota and South Dakota, warm and windy conditions prompted widespread warnings that wildfire conditions were ripe for explosive growth if blazes are ignited.
National Climatic Data Service
Yesterday, temperatures soared to record highs in the Northeast.
In Boston, temperatures reached a record 71 degrees Monday afternoon -- eclipsing the former high of 69 degrees for a March 12 set 110 years ago.
The unseasonably warm weather was expected to continue in Boston throughout the week, but likely not with record-setting temperatures, said Bill Simpson, a weather service meteorologist based in Taunton, Mass.
Temperatures also soared Monday afternoon in New York City to 71 degrees in Central Park, tying the record that dates back to 1890, weather.com reported.
Jacquelyn Martin / AP
A woman runs past budding cherry blossom trees along the tidal basin in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
Among the 102 high-temp records broken on Monday were those in Albany, N.Y., Bridgeport, Conn., Buffalo, N.Y., Burlington, Vt., and Newark, N.J.
St Louis, Mo., tied its record at 84 degrees, while Saline and Russell, both in Kansas, posted record 83 degrees.
In Washington, D.C., above-average temperatures meant cherry trees started blossoming sooner than expected ahead of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which begins on March 20. Florets were extending on Monday, but peak bloom is expected to fall some time from March 24 to 28, still within the original forecast.
Minnesotans accustomed to mid-March snowstorms instead basked in record-high temperatures in the mid-60s last weekend and more records might fall there under an unprecedented, extended warm front.
The high temperature reached 66 degrees on Saturday and Sunday in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area, topping previous records for those dates set in 1878 and 1902, respectively, in records that run back to 1871.
Temperatures could reach close to a record on Tuesday and into the 70s on Wednesday, about 30 degrees above normal, Paulson said. Temperatures were also forecast to reach from the mid-60s into the 70s the rest of the week, he said.
Record high temperature were recorded across the upper Midwest over the weekend with temperatures punching into the 70s in Bismarck, N.D., and across southern Minnesota and eastern Wisconsin.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Nothing like perfect golfing weather in March lol...and let the global warming comments begin.
I was going to start quoting scriptures from the bible but it's too hot and I'm headed for the beach.
What I have read our nice weather is caused by the El Nino current. We get a winter like this every 15 to 20 years. Makes up for the past 5 which have been crap.
Nothing to do with global warming or politics. Just enjoy!
So much for "taunting" posters for Global Warming comments.
And, so much for the 2-3 inches of snow in the Seattle area last night.
Geeez, we have Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter with temperatures varying at each stage. I wonder why that is ????? Must be Bush's fault.
Yep, politics is getting into everything these days. Wait a minute, the weather is "beyond Mr. Obama's control" so he is not responsible for the weather patterns (YET).
I'm across the strait and we got a light dusting last night and this morning. Even with that coating, my solar modules generated enough to get the inverter going! It's all gone now though.
Is it global warming? Natural cycles in the earth? Sun spots?
I don't know and frankly don't care. I am just glad its not cold anymore.
When it's 150 degrees on the Planet Earth and we look like Mars I'm sure the last thing a Conservation will say before he/she dies is it's all Obama's fault.
Yes, and we'll all be saying "I wish we would have listened to Average Guy". There, do you feel better now? Hope so, because I've got a life to live instead of sitting around fretting and wasting money on something you have no control over or effect on.
Yea, you have no effect on it hu? You vote for rich oil billionaires who protected the Saudis after they attacked the USA on Sept 11th, you hate everyone, you vote with hatred and not common sense.
You think Obama is a bad guy cause he wants to give human beings health care but stick up for the Christian Church while your priests rape your children in the back rooms of your churches and tell you to hate gay people.
But you have no control over the fact that the world is getting as hot as HELL.
The meek shall inherit the earth, and it ain't you.
p.s. the only place with more right-wing conservative religious fanatics than the middle east, is Texas.
average, really?
when that happens (if that happens) the only memory of the obamanation will be the fact that he was the worst president ever, of course we're talking 2000 years or more in the future.
IT IS
Yea, Obama is a really bad President, he stopped a war, tried to give people health care, believes in freedom and justice for all people and is a good father and husband and grew up to become the President of the United States of America with hard work.
It's no wonder Conservative Christians who stick up for the Churches that rape their children think it's people like him who are the bad people in this world. If you were not so brainwashed and such a slave to your masters you might actually ask a few questions one day. If you ever do you won't like the answers you get.
"Avarage Guy," your rants would probably be taken more seriously if you actually knew how to spell "average."
As for the story itself, I live in NYC and, even though I'm a cold-weather guy, I'm certainly not going to complain about the weather this winter. However, I just hope this isn't an indication of a disgustingly hot and humid summer to come.
the obamanation ended a war that was ending, tries to FORCE his socialistic healthcare plan on everyone that is NOT muslim or a member of congress, does not believe in freedom and justice for everyone, is a lousy son that has made the statement that he HATES his mother AND her race, and was groomed for the job with the help of known terrorists and socialists.
it's no wonder that when he tried to subvert the first amendment by forcing government control over churches, conservative became irate, liberals should have as well but they see socialism as a way to get what they don't deserve.
and where does slavery come in? oh, thats right, in your socialist ideals.
Heh, Obama didn't stop a war...he started 2 more and about to start a 3rd. Secondly, and most importantly, how in the hell do you think we find fossils in mountainsides? It's because in the last warming cycle the Earth flooded and a lot of things died. Guess what? It's gonna happen again...
And to all the liberal chirpers who think oil and our carbon footprint is the evil, know this, the last two large earthquakes (2011 Japan, 2004 Indonesia) shook the Earth off it's axis for over 8 seconds a piece. More damage was done to our climate cycles in those 16 seconds than all the devastation man has forced upon this planet in centuries.
In fact, you want to know the way to end pollution and resource depletion?....LET PEOPLE DIE!!! We increased our birth rate, decreased our death rate, over doubled our lifespan, and some how you think oil is to blame for diminishing resources? End effective healthcare and foster genocide across the planet and you're on the right track to fixing the human problem...heh,so maybe Obama is on the right track after all. =)
It's not the lack of cold you should worry about, but how much rain/snow you received and whether there's enough to last through the hotter months. Drought is the concern at the moment. Early heat waves tend to exacerbate drought
Wow: STexan and Averageguy: You two really know how to get off topic.
This article is about unseasonably warm weather. Take advice from comment #2, Will1091847.
This might be a sign of things to come, but can't you guys just enjoy it for now?
Good grief.....Mr. Avaaarage Guy.
Time for you to do some research BEFORE posting.
Anyway, this article is about "hot spots" around the country. Nothing to do with your rhetoric about religion, Texas, wars, rape, or ten-buck two.
Back to your meds.....QUICK.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
"... a Conservation will say ..."
Noun:
I don't think that "Conservations" can talk.
OK... I'm no scientist, and I'm not a global climate change alarmist. But I do have a question which others much smarter than I might be able to answer.
I believe it was reported that the massive earthquake last year that devastated Japan, not only moved the entire nation of Japan, but it also had an impact on the axis of the earth. If that is so, and again, I'm no scientist and I don't have any of the instruments necessary to measure these things, is it possible that earthquake is possible for some of the weather anomalies we're experiencing? Especially if one considers that the earth "might" have shifted slightly on it's axis. Would that not also change traditional jet stream patterns?
I think until the sunrise/set times are off significantly from where projected, no, the earth's axis and rotation is still in the "norm" and within spec. That would not affect shifting jet streams, sun activity, normal shifting of warm water pools across the globe. For every above normal temps pattern on the globe, there is a below normal temps pattern somewhere else.
I believe the shift is so slight that it shouldn't affect anything.
I believe it's all the hot air coming out of the mouths of people in Texas.
This is just a localized event more than likely.
No. Any changes in axis and rotation was so small it's almost undetectable. Climate changes the Jet Stream, not Earthquakes.
Global warming? Nah, couldn't be! /s
whatever it is, I'll take it! golfing and BBQ's in March? priceless.
Nope just possibly a 200 year, 500 year, 1000 year or 10,000 or a 100,000 year cycle we hit. We dont really know.
Earth temp can change really fast for the better or Worst. During the War of Independence not only did they experience what is called a Little Ice Age, but even experience warmer than normal temps before that happened.
So is climate change man made. Sorry, but since man has experienced stuff like this way before the supposed culprit (Pollution) really started. I have to say NO.
First, NASA defines the Little Ice Age as a cold period between 1550 AD and 1850 AD and notes three particularly cold intervals: one beginning about 1650, another about 1770, and he last in 1850, each separated by intervals of slight warming. Additionally the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) describes areas affected by the LIA to be isolated to the northern hemisphere and not as part of a global phenomenon.
CO2 increases the atmosphere ability to retain heat. Man burns fossil fuel extracted from the ground and puts more CO2 into the atmosphere. More CO2 = warmer atmosphere. (This is a gross simplification but it is something I believe most people can understand.) Man may not cause the current global warming but we ARE contributing to it. I believe I read somewhere that every major Ice Age was immediately preceded by a large spike of CO2 in the atmosphere. We could just be hastening the approach of the next ice age which is due relatively soon anyway.
The current heat wave is nice but it is just localized weather and has nothing to do with global climate.
"So is climate change man made. Sorry, but since man has experienced stuff like this way before the supposed culprit (Pollution) really started. I have to say NO."
Your logic is flawed. The fact that other factors can change climate says nothing about whether we can affect it ALSO.
Sky high gas prices, lack of jobs, terrible economy, nuclear Iran and MSNBC wants to talk about the weather. Hmmm...sure seems like a distraction.
YEAH! How dare a news organization talk about the weather! That's never happened before! Must be that liberal media again!
How very liberal of you.
These are not the droids you're looking for.
"Thinker-543390
Sky high gas prices, lack of jobs, terrible economy, nuclear Iran and MSNBC wants to talk about the weather. Hmmm...sure seems like a distraction."
You call yourself a thinker??????????????
Hey "thinker" ever "think" OIL has something to do with all the things you just listed, O and guess what I just was "thinking" about: OIL is why it's getting hotter.
No connection, no, hu,nothing???
Gas prices are being kept that way by big oil to get rid of obama, counting on the stupidity of the average american to blame whoever is in office. The economy is slowly improving despite years of Bush abuse, and Iran isn't Nuclear unless you listen to the war hawks of the Republican party who pushed us into this recession in the first place. The weather is beautiful. By the way if Obama capped the oil prices as Nixon once did, he would be called a socialist by Fox News.
True "Thinkers" can usually handle more than one topic at a time.
Get used to it because it is only going to get hotter. There are good parts about global warming as well, but we cannot treat the earth and skie like an open sewer anymore either. We process human and animal wastes because the amounts we create are too much for nature to handle on its own. We overcame lead in paint, lead in gasoline, the chloroflourocarbons and we can learn to process CO2 and make it a benefit as well. The global warming problem is one we created, but one we can also deal with if the politicians will stay out of it and stop making it a new tax revenue stream.
It takes a good 30 to 100 years to grow a tree and only a day to cut it down and burn it up. So, plant a lot of trees, and process the coal and other resources we use so they do not continue to add to the problem. We cannot stop the increasing global temperatures but we can slow its rise. It will take another 50 years before people wiil actually admit we have created this problem. And I have been studying this for over 35 years, and it is something we have created.
It took 1.5 Billion years to produce the fossil fuels, and that is how long it takes nature to harness the CO2 and energy. We have put back into the system in less than 150 years about 1/4 of what it took nature 1.5 billion years to collect, store, and preserve. We can not only survive this but actually thrive if we just do something about it and also use it for our benefit, which is also a possibility.
In your many years of study, what specific experiments have you conducted in order to arrive at your conclusions?
We do not have to do the experiments ourselves, Blamo; we know how to read. Scientists do science, and then the educated members of the public look at it ans see if it makes sense, which it does. The everyone else says "bet it's not!"
frog in a pot of slowly heating water - does not notice that he is cooking until the timer sounds - too late fool
Beats the last two winters with all that snow. Enjoy while you can. Probably have record snowfall next year! By the way. Rain and snow for the next five days here in sunny California. 60-80" of the white stuff expected in Tahoe. Must be Al Goreble Warming.
" 60-80" of the white stuff expected in Tahoe."
At the end of one of the warmest and driest winters on record. What's your point?
...global warming - naaaa......global stupidity
Last I checked the Midwest was only a small portion of the globe. :)
Sure beats having to pay $$$$ for heat this week.
It is all the hot air from the campaigning politicians! Nice to have the warm weather though instead of blizzards.
What is up with this uproar. This warm weather allows people to keep more of their money instead of other peoples wallet due to heating costs.
Nothing to see here, people. Everyone knows that global warming was just a hoax invented by 97% of the scientific community to turn us all into godless communists. This climate change we're seeing is nothing more than Al Gore with a blow drier making it LOOK like we're disrupting Earth's climate. Continue to blindly oppose all legislation that might harm Big Oil's profit margins.
It's "global warming". It just has to be. After all, there are all kinds of left wing, tree hugging, "geniuses", that say it is. And they can't be wrong.
Never mind that that nearly every PLANET in the solar system is also warming. It's because of man! Those satellites we have orbiting the other planets are doing the same thing man is doing here on earth, just burning everything up!
Continue to blindly follow the lies and false data (most of which was destroyed once they got the "results" they WANTED). After all, they have a profit margin to meet too.
CherylLM: "Never mind that that nearly every PLANET in the solar system is also warming"
Not true. Mars might be, but even that is not certain, and it could be for independent reasons. It has different rotational anomalies and a pure CO2 atmosphere.
"most of which was destroyed once they got the "results" they WANTED"
An absolute lie. If you are going to accuse others of lying, try not to do the same in the same sentence, and try to have some evidence, of which there is ZERO.
Cheryl, not all of the other planets in our solar system are warming. So your point is incorrect. Also, for the other planets we do not have the long term records (and physical data from geology) that we do on Earth. So we cannot tell for sure what is actually going on with the other planets. We see that Mars and Pluto (not considered a planet) are warming, but for different reasons. Other planets and moons do not seem to be warming. but as I said, we do not have the long term records and ability to measure as we do on Earth.
But we can, and do, measure solar variance. We have been for quite some time. And this shows us that the current warming on Earth is not solar caused.
I think it's roughly 50/50 between the planets that are heating up and cooling down, Cheryl. Nice try, kiddo.
The Fox News documentary on this will probably conclude that it is due to the lack of financial incentives for drilling for oil in Texas and Alaska.
Some people are really stupid. The warm weather might feel nice now but there are many consequences. One will be a tremendous increase in insects. Another will probably an impact on food costs.
Keep sticking your heads in the sand.... Thank you Republicans.
How about a story on the record snowfall in Oregon?
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/13/historic-march-snowstorm-along-oregon-coastline/#comment-922072
Record snowfall does not mean unusual cold. It means a lot of moisture in the atmosphere, which can be due to ocean temperatures being above normal.
No problem, this is what air conditioning was designed for. Around these parts warm weather means the perpetual roar of open bike exhaust, increased random death at the hands of idiots with multiple DUI convictions who still haven't learned their lesson, screeching tires from street racing, road rage, a mob of angry black youth randomly looking to steal junk food from a gas station or give someone a beatdown. I don't know what the hell happened with people's behavior over the last decade, but I'd sooner have cool weather all year long than deal with the crazies for four or five months.
Here's how to remember clock reset each year. Global warming forward, climate change backward.
Obama spent $5 trillion in the prior three years. He and Bill Ayers are making a fortune writing books, and Michelle is taking $500,000 vacations. All they did was going around yelling Change We Can Believe In and off they went. You can keep track of this success run on DrunkenSailor.com.
It does this every once in a while here in Wyoming. You start savoring the warm weather and then Ma nature kicks you right in the a** with a big honkin' snow storm.
You are right where the mountains meet the prairie. It can go either way, depending on which way the wind is blowing (literally). We woke up to a 13 inch snowfall in Montana once (Glacier National Park) in August. That was a little unusual. But it only lasted a day. In the Midwest, it shouldn't be that warm so early in March. In fact, in Pennsylvania we had March weather in February. Anyone can tell that the climate is changing. You don't need an expert for that.
Do unseasonably warm temperatures at this time of year spawn more tornadoes? What exactly causes those suckers to form and what accounts for the seeming increase in their occurrence and strength?
Winter is coming, but only on HBO...
Why is Philadelphia south of Washington DC on this map? Philly is 150 miles to the northeast of DC.
Enjoy this warmer than usual Spring weather get your painting outside done when possible and other outdoor chores...its gonna be a HOT summer for a lot of us.