Philadelphia weather: 3 records fall as May-like warmth continues
After a record high on Tuesday, overnight lows failed to get below the mid-50s; expect mid-70s Wednesday afternoon.
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One measure of how surreal the weather this week has been was evident Wednesday morning.
At daybreak the overnight low temperature at Philadelphia International Airport was 51, or several degrees above the normal high for a Feb. 21.
That would be a record-high minimum temperature for the date, besting the 49 set on 2002. And in the afternoon, the temperature rocketed to 77, surpassing the 72 of Feb. 21, 1930, during a remarkable warm spell that produced the highest February reading on record in Philadelphia, 79. Monday's high, 72, also set a record.
This month has no chance to catch February 2017 as the warmest in records that date to 1874, but it has secured a place in the top 10.
The extreme warmth washing over the East — it was 70 in Boston on Tuesday, and snow-melt flood watches are up in Vermont and Upstate New York — has been borne of south winds generated by high pressure in the Atlantic. This is a common pattern — in August.
Naturally this will not last. Weather systems in the last several weeks have had no staying power, and cooler air will build down Thursday and Friday.
Looking further ahead, both AccuWeather and Weather.com foresee the potential for a wintry comeback in March.
For now, enjoy one more May day.