Actually, a warm-up during winter requires that cold air move out of the way.Warm air by its molecular structure is much lighter than cold air so it can'tforce its way in. Cold air will often vacate allowing warmer weather to gain afoothold when the jet stream shifts north, and that will happen next week. Bynext Tuesday and Wednesday, a very sizable portion of the Central and Easternstates will be enjoying temperatures well above normal. It will get to the 50sas far north as Ohio and Pennsylvania, 60s will show up in the mid-MississippiValley, and the southern Great Plains can expect highs in the 70s.
So how long will the thaw last? Across the North, probably not very. It's notoften that winter packs up and leaves for good during the middle of Februarynorth of 40 degrees. That being said, the atmosphere may have a tough timebringing more piercing cold into the Southern states for the rest of the winterseason.
In any case, the bottom line is that a major thaw is coming next week withtemperatures reaching their highest levels of the winter in many places.
Furthermore, the deep snowcover across the Midwest and Northeast will take abig hit. As of Friday, about 65 percent of the country was covered by snow.
This time next week, the coverage will decrease to less than 40 percent.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that it can't be warm everywhere at the sametime, and someone is going to have to pay the price. That penalty goes to thefolks in the West where the weather will turn colder and stormier next week.
Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.
