Climate change: Record high temperatures surge in the Eastern US

It does not feel like winter in the Eastern U.S. this week. Spring has already arrived in the Southeast and forecast highs are in the 70s as far north as Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, breaking records at dozens of climate-monitoring stations.

In Washington, D.C., Tuesday’s morning temperature was 48 degrees, which sets a new record for warmest overnight low for the date. The old record was 47 degrees in 1904.

At 3:31 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, Washington crushed its previous record high of 64 (set in 2008), rising to 73 degrees.

“The battle is on between how fast the cold air arrives and how quickly the precipitation exits the region,” Wes Junker, Capital Weather Gang’s winter weather expert, explained. “The farther north you are, the more likely that you receive meaningful snow and have your morning commute impacted. The farther south and east you live, the lower your chance of getting more than conversational snow. And you could just have rain.”

Records that have already been broken or tied are crossed off.

Washington D.C. — 64 degrees (1887)
Dulles Airport — 65 degrees (2009)
BWI Airport — 64 degrees (1904)
Paducah, Ky. — 66 degrees (1999)
Memphis, Tenn. — 72 degrees (1937)
Jacksonville, Fla. — 80 degrees (1904)
Houston — 80 degrees (1957)
Corpus Christi, Tex. — 83 degrees (2000)
Austin — 84 degrees (2013)
Brownsville, Tex. — 85 degrees (2013)

Agencies/Canadajournal