Unusually mild mid-winter temperatures dominate much of North America—but also Europe and even western Russia. Across the Atlantic in the U.K., London surged past its 42° normal to hit 53° Friday while perennially cold Moscow hit 35°‚ an impressive 21 degrees above the 14° high considered normal. But it may be the U.S. East Coast which headlines the mild weather Saturday. The 71° high predicted in New York City is not only 35 degrees above normal, it’s just a degree shy of the warmest January temperature recorded there since 1869—a Jan. 26, 1950, high of 72°. Other 70s are expected in Washington and Philadelphia.
In another unseasonable twist, tornado-bearing thunderstorms raked South Carolina. A twister in Spartanburg County near Moore produced a damage path a quarter mile long and 50 yards wide, destroying two sheds and snapping 8” diameter pine trees.
Interestingly, Chicago’s 50° high Friday exceeded Las Vegas’s 47°.
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
