US temperature records breaking border to border in February heat wave
Unseasonably high temperatures are breaking records from the southern border to Canada, as a warm front blankets most of the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains.
More than 100 temperature records broke on Monday from Texas to Minnesota, with Killeen, Texas, reaching 100 degrees.
Abilene, Texas, hit 94 degrees, followed by Dallas at 93 degrees, Oklahoma City at 88 degrees, and other notable highs including Omaha’s 80 degrees and Chicago’s 71 degrees. Fargo, N.D., saw its first 60-degree February day in 66 years.
Century-old February temperature records were also broken in Abilene, Omaha and Minneapolis.
The weather comes from an unusual low pressure system that is drawing moist, warm southern air toward the north. But it won’t last long; a frigid high-pressure system is expected to move into the Midwest late Tuesday and make its way to the East Coast by Thursday.
Des Moines, Iowa, hit a record high of 78 on Monday but will cool to just a 33 degree high by Wednesday due to the oncoming cold front, while Montana and the Dakotas already saw temperatures in the single digits Monday.
Powered by a warming climate and a strong El Niño weather pattern, the 2023-2024 winter is expected to be one of the warmest ever for the U.S.
National weather forecasters have already predicted that 2024 is almost guaranteed to be the hottest year ever, breaking the record set just last year.