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Milwaukee, Detroit and St. Louis set February warm weather records [1]

['Ian Livingston']

Date: 2024-02-26

5:45 p.m. — Another day of widespread record warmth Over 100 warm weather records records were 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.

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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.

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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.

While a brief blast of cold weather will arrive midweek, there’s another surge of unseasonably warm air poised to spread over the nation to begin March.

Monday’s record warmth

Dozens of daily and monthly record highs were smashed from Texas through the Upper Midwest. Across the southern Plains, temperatures soared into the 80s and 90s while 60s swelled as far north as North Dakota and Minnesota, including Bismarck and Minneapolis.

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Mid-90s were common across central and southern Texas — and a few spots tickled the century mark.

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Fort Cavazos in Killeen, Tex., reached 100 degrees. It’s the first day with 100-degree readings in the United States this year and only three degrees shy of the February national record.

Among the myriad calendar day temperature records, a number of monthly records — which are more difficult to achieve — were also tied or broken:

According to preliminary data, at least 73 locations across the country have either tied or broken a record high so far today. Records span from near the Canadian border (International Falls, MN) to the Mexican border (Laredo and Del Rio, TX). pic.twitter.com/sXO5OvhkVs — NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) February 26, 2024

Tuesday

Widespread low temperatures 20 to 35 degrees above normal occurred from Central Texas to the Great Lakes on Tuesday morning. Lows remained above freezing as far north as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, with 50s in Chicago and near 60 in St. Louis.

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The warmest air will shift eastward as a cold front slices through the Plains and Midwest, focusing the potential for record highs from the South into the Great Lakes. Some record warmth will also start to trickle into the Northeast.

Temperatures again rise into the 80s from Missouri and Oklahoma southward, with some readings approaching 100 in southern Texas.

The following locations are among those forecast to post record highs on Tuesday:

Dallas: 89 degrees

Springfield, Mo.: 84 degrees (would tie February record)

Springfield, Ill.: 80 degrees (would mark February record)

Chicago: 77 degrees (would mark February record)

Toledo: 71 degrees

Lansing, Mich: 71 degrees (would mark February record)

Green Bay, Wis.: 66 degrees (would mark February record)

Syracuse, N.Y.: 65 degrees

Wednesday

Wednesday will mark the second straight morning during which over 100 record warm lows are in jeopardy, particularly from the Ohio Valley to the East Coast. In a number of the locations that challenge records, the predicted low temperature will be warmer than the average afternoon high, including:

Washington: Forecast low of 57 degrees (compared to an average high of 52 degrees)

New York City: Forecast low of 52 degrees (compared to an average high of 45 degrees)

Boston: Forecast low 49 degrees (compared to an average high of 42 degrees)

Not as many record afternoon highs are predicted compared to Monday and Tuesday as the cold front advances eastward. Nonetheless, a dozen or so could be threatened in an area focused from the Mid-Atlantic to New England, including in these locations:

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Baltimore: 71 degrees

Buffalo: 66 degrees

Burlington, Vt.: 59 degrees

Caribou, Maine: 50 degrees

By Thursday, the potential for record warmth will be temporarily over as the cold front pushes off the East Coast.

What will early March bring?

The first day or two of March will produce temperatures about 10 degrees below average for much of the central and eastern United States. But it won’t be long before another surge of warmth.

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[1] Url: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/02/26/record-warm-weather-midwest-greatlakes-south-northeast/

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