Punxsutawney Phil may have to go back to the drawing board after calling for six more weeks of winter because the near forecast is calling for record-breaking warm weather in the next few weeks.
The record high temperature for the date of Feb. 20 was set in Bradford back in 2016 at 58 degrees. That record is expected to be broken today, with temperatures potentially reaching as high as 67 degrees.
According to Meteorologist Craig Evanego of the National Weather Service in State College, a strong warm front will be sticking around the McKean County area for the next couple of weeks, with its peak high temperatures being today and Wednesday.
“A slow moving warm front found its way over our area as it heads southwest,” Evanego said. “To linger for so long, it’s really quite an anomaly.”
The weather will be warm but the sun won’t be expected to make an appearance as cloud accumulation will be the norm throughout the week. And while the temperature will be high during the day, evenings throughout the week will see spells of freezing rain with temperatures as low as 25 degrees on average.
“Even reaching into the following Monday, temperatures will drop but will still be above normal,” Evanego said. “We’re going to be seeing this kind of weather for at least the next 10 days.”
When asked about the potential of flooding, Evanego said the likelihood is “very low” because of small amount of snow left on the ground.
“We won’t have to worry about flooding like before,” he said. “There isn’t any ice to jam the creeks and rivers, so we should be free of any floods.”
The weather today will see rain in the morning but should dry up by the afternoon and remain cloudy. The warm weather will stay stick around tonight with a low around 55 degrees. That trend will continue into Wednesday morning as temperatures will reach as high as 61 degrees and drop down to 31 degrees in the evening with a chance of freezing rain throughout the night.