New York to Rockies May Be Basking In Record Warmth Next Week

(Bloomberg) -- Temperatures from New York City to the Rocky Mountains will soar to spring-like heights in the days ahead -- once the Central U.S. shakes off Friday’s snow and ice warnings. 

Warmth and mild air will sweep in just about everywhere except the Pacific coast and the Great Basin bounded mainly by Utah and Nevada going into next week, said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center. 

“There is a potential for a lot of record highs from the mid-section of the nation to the east,” he said. “It’s a huge warm-up from what we are seeing today.”

The current weather forecast calls for most of the major populated areas in the U.S. to be basking in temperatures 5 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit above normal through Dec. 19, according to outlooks from Atmospheric G2 and other commercial forecasters. In New York’s Central Park, the Saturday high should reach 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius), a turnabout from Thursday’s low of 31 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

For some areas across the Great Plains and Midwest, where winter storm warnings predict 6 to 12 inches of snow on Friday, temperatures could be 30 to 40 degrees above normal in a few days, according to Oravec.

“It doesn’t look like the snow will be lasting too long,” he said.

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