America is facing a week of ‘weather whiplash’ with roller-coaster temperatures soaring to summer-like highs before plunging.
Eastern states will see the mercury nudge 70F ahead of the weekend, around 25F higher than average.
A gush of warm air from the south will lights the burners under regions crippled by snow as temperature records in parts teeter.
But close behind will be another cold front, with wind, rain and snow to dampen spirits after the warm rush.
Eastern states will see the mercury nudge 70F ahead of the weekend, around 25F higher than average
Weather Channels
Weather Channel meteorologist Jennifer Gray said: “Buckle up because we have got some weather whiplash headed our way, with rain snow and dramatic temperature changes all within a matter of days.
“Temperatures will warm up just briefly before temperatures take another nosedive on Friday and into Saturday.”
Where temperatures do rise, however, single-digit lows will give way to highs in the 60Fs and 70Fs, she explained.
She said: “We are looking at high temperatures back in the 40Fs, 50Fs and even 60Fs across a huge chunk of the east, and even Houston by the end of the week will top out in the low- to mid- 70FS.
“Even in the mornings, we are saying goodbye to single-digit temperatures, and it will be back into the twenties and thirties across the northern tier of the country, and even warmer to the south.”
Warm air will be pulled up from the Gulf of Mexico on the southerly side of the jet stream as it sweeps the US.
Missing the warmth, though, will be the west coast and the far north as the jet wedges Polar air across the region.
A spokesman for the US National Weather Service (NOAA) said “Temperatures will be below average across southern California and the Southwest…after a cold front sinks south into these regions.
“But sandwiched between the southwest and northeast corners of the nation, much
of the Central and Eastern US will experience well above average temperatures.
“The highest anomalies will be in the north-Central US where highs are forecast to be 15F to 25F degrees above normal, and this could challenge a few daily high temperature records in the northern Plains and Upper Midwest.”
Despite cold weather clinging on in parts, the recent winter blast is ‘on its last legs’, experts promise.
Warm air will continue to flood in from the south through the rest of this week, cutting off the Arctic flow and rocketing temperatures.
Warm air will be pulled up from the Gulf of Mexico on the southerly side of the jet stream as it sweeps the US
Weather Channel
Jim Dale, US meteorologist for British Weather Services and co-author of ‘Surviving Extreme Weather’, said: “Warm temperatures are going to push up from the south with the cold air now on its last legs.
“Although the cold is still on the fringes, the worst of it is probably now over.
“The Arctic wave is going to be cut off by warmer air coming up from the south.”
The change in weather, however, will bring the risk of storms as cold and warm air collide, he warned.
He said: “This is something we are always going to watch when warm and cold air come together because this brings the ingredients together for volatile atmospheric conditions and storms.
“There may be the risk of thunder and heavy rain through the rest of the week and into the weekend as the warmer temperatures come in.”
