An unseasonable warmup will continue to spread throughout most of the U.S. this week, with high temperatures from Texas to the Midwest feeling more like May than the end of meteorological winter.
Hundreds of temperature records – record highs and record-warm lows – are expected to fall through midweek, with Monday and Tuesday forecast to be the warmest days across the Plains and Midwest. On Monday, more than 250 million Americans will experience above-average temperatures.
“This warmth is really beginning to build today across the middle tier of the country, and it continues to shift its way eastward by about Tuesday,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Jane Minar said.
Temperatures more typical for the end of May are possible in cities such as Omaha, Nebraska, and Indianapolis, with highs in the 60s and 70s. On Tuesday, a high of 68 is forecast for Chicago. This warm air will help fuel a severe weather threat in the Midwest.
In the southern Plains, temperatures will skip spring and jump right into summerlike heat, with highs topping out in the 80s and 90s in Texas and Oklahoma.
More than five dozen daily record highs are expected to fall Monday from Texas through North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Dozens of daily records could be toppled again on Tuesday from Texas to the Great Lakes.
Some of the highest temperatures in the U.S. on Sunday were in Texas, and that heat will continue to build through Tuesday.
Sunday’s forecast high in Dallas is 86 with a jump to 93 degrees on Monday. Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth are predicting an elevated threat of grass fires early in the week due to the unseasonably warm temperatures and low relative humidity of around 15%.
When combining the expected number of record highs and record-warm lows, more than 300 temperature records could be matched or broken between Monday and Wednesday.
There is also the potential for broken records across the Northeast on Wednesday before a powerful cross-country storm blasts through the region.
These toasty temperatures will ensure that cities from Minnesota to Maine will record one of their 10 warmest meteorological winters on record.
According to the FOX Forecast Center, the record-warm lows will likely outpace the record highs because low temperatures early this week will be warmer than the average highs for this time of year.
By late in the week, cooler temperatures will return as a cold front carrying the cross-country storm will knock down temperatures. This front will bring a wild temperature swing for millions.
“While this warmth is building in quickly, and we are expecting records through about Tuesday and Wednesday, we do get a sharp reminder once the storm moves in that, yes, it is still winter, and we still need the coats,” Minar said.
During the second half of the week, temperatures will transition from 20-30 degrees above average to 10-20 degrees below average, the FOX Forecast Center said. This temperature swing will also come with howling winds. In portions of the northern tier, feels-like temperatures could dip below zero by Wednesday.
The country will then be divided by unseasonable warmth in the South and cold temperatures in the North. However, the FOX Forecast Center is tracking long-range forecasts that will allow that warmth to return across the country in the first full week of March.