Last week, much of the eastern part of the country shivered under conditions that brought below freezing weather to Florida, and the coldest weather in three years to Atlanta.  This week, things have turned around, and extremely warm temperatures are the rule along the Ohio River valley.  Take a look at the temperatures recorded around 10 PM this evening:

For January 7th, that’s extremely warm.  For example, at 9:50 PM, it was 63 in Cincinnati (about 10 degrees warmer than in Atlanta). Their normal high for this time of year is 38 degrees; yesterday was 33 degrees above normal, with a low temperature only dropping to 58. In New York, it’s currently 59, with temperatures yesterday running 22 degrees above normal. In general, the warm temperatures of the last two days have wiped out the effects of the cold spell, and for the month so far, temperatures east of the Mississippi are running one to two degrees above normal.

You can see that west of the warm weather, temperatures are much colder.  This is a classic situation for thunderstorms and tornadoes. There are tornado watches in effect for northern Illinois, northern Ohio, and much of Michigan, as well as for much of Missouri.  The line of storms is caused by the same system that wreaked so much havoc on Northern California and Nevada earlier this week. The storms will reach the Atlanta area Tuesday evening, and after a few days of welcome rain, we should be back to more normal temperatures, at least for a while.

This morning’s low temperature of 16.5 degrees in Lawrenceville, Georgia was the coldest I’ve recorded since January 24th, 2005, when the thermometer dropped to 14.6. It’s not a record for the day - that honor is held by 1928, where the temperature dropped to nine degrees in Atlanta.

The coldest weather of the 2007-2008 winter season spread throughout Georgia and Florida, with temperatures (as of 7 AM) including:

Albany, GA - 22
Athens, GA - 17
Atlanta, GA - 15
Brunswick, GA - 27
Destin, FL - 26
Gainesville, FL - 22
Macon, GA - 20
Naples, FL - 34
Orlando, FL - 31
Pensacola, FL - 23
Savannah, GA - 25
Tampa, FL - 29
Valdosta, GA - 24

Yesterday, the temperature topped out at 31.2 degrees here in Lawrenceville, and 30 in Atlanta, which is about 22 degrees below normal. As best I can tell, the last time the high temperature didn’t break the freezing mark was on January 29th, 2005, when we had a high temperature of 31.3. Wind chill readings yesterday didn’t help either, with readings in the single digits.

This week’s weather may turn out to be the coldest of the year. Temperatures will begin to moderate today, and we could see highs around 40 today, near 50 on Friday and in the 60s for the weekend, and into next week. Look for another cold night tonight though, with lows around 20.

As much of the southeast US enjoys record setting temperatures in December, maybe it’s only appropriate that a late subtropical storm make an appearance in the Caribbean Sea.  Subtropical Storm Olga is being tracked by the National Hurricane Center, and is making landfall over the Dominican Republic:

Don’t expect any drought relief from Olga, though.  Although she could drop up to a foot of rain over Santo Domingo, by Wednesday afternoon the storm will have become a tropical depression, and the remnant low will be over the Yucatan peninsula by the weekend.

Meanwhile, metro Atlanta is enjoying its third straight day of record warmth.  With the temperature already at 75 degrees, we’ve broken the old record for December 11th of 73, set back in 1985.  Yesterday’s high of 77 degrees broke the old record of 74, which was set in 1972, and Sunday’s high of 76 topped the previous record of 71 degrees in 1978.

Look for more warm temperatures through Thursday, when the high pressure system holding off the storms to the north will start to break down and bring in at least some rain.  By the weekend, it will feel more like winter, with highs in the upper 40s to low 50s.

Preliminary figures from the National Climactic Data Center indicates that nationwide, we had the seventh warmest and 22nd driest September since records began 113 years ago. Most of the country to the east of the Rocky Mountains was somewhat warmer than normal, while the west coast had close to normal temperatures. The southwest had above normal precipitation compared to averages, while the east and midwest saw below normal rainfall, and the rest of the country was about normal.

In Georgia, the average temperature of 75.6 degrees was the 44th warmest, and the state average precipitation of 2.98 inches was the 37th driest in the 113 years recorded.

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You’ve undoubtedly heard about the extreme heat in much of the western part of the United States. Here are some high temperature readings from Friday, July 6th:

Bullhead City, Arizona 118 degrees
Phoenix, Arizona 113 (Not a record)
Tucson, Arizona 107 (Not a record)
Boise Idaho 105 (new record, breaking previous 101 degrees in 1985)
Bozeman, Montana 106 (Record)
Billings, Montana 104 (Record)
Glasgow, Montana 102 (Not a record high)
Missoula, Montana 107 (Record)
Elko Nevada 104 (Breaking old high temperature record of 102, set in 1913)
Las Vegas, Nevada 115 (Ties record set in 1989; with a high of 113 predicted for 7/7/07, I wonder if the gamblers who decided to visit Las Vegas on the luckiest day of the century are really feeling lucky?)
Reno, Nevada 99 (Not a record)
Ontario, Oregon 106 (Records set on the 5th and the 6th)
Salt Lake City, Utah 103 (Breaks record of 102 degrees in 1973)
Hanford, Washington 102 (Not a record)

Typically this time of year, the national daily high temperature is set in Death Valley California, and so it was again yesterday, with 129 degrees, 12 degrees above normal.

While the excessive daytime temperatures are in many cases warmer than the Atlanta area has ever seen, keep in mind that they are accompanied by extremely low humidity. For example at the time that Las Vegas reached 115 degrees yesterday, the dewpoint was 28 degrees, and the relative humidity was 5%.

Additional records for the highest low temperature are being broken as well. In St. George, Utah yesterday, the low got down to 92 degrees, breaking the all time low minimum temperature record set back in 1970.

Next week’s weather could get interesting, as the heat wave moves east. Because of the persistent low pressure system dumping rain on the southern plains, the extreme temperatures won’t reach Atlanta. But, high temperatures in the upper 90s are likely to make New York City miserable early next week. High temperatures of 98 in Boston, 96 in Chicago, and 98 in Washington, DC are going to affect a lot more people than the records being set out west. Look for the weather to dominate the headlines again next week.