Warm Spell Topples Records Across Upstate NY

Thursday, December 24, 2015 8:32 am | < 1 Minute Read

Traffic passes along a foggy Brooklyn Queens Expressway, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015 in New York. A weather pattern partly linked with El Nino has turned winter upside-down across the U.S. during a week of heavy holiday travel, bringing spring-like warmth to the Northeast, a risk of tornadoes in the South and so much snow across the West that even skiing slopes have been overwhelmed. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) — Traffic passes along a foggy Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Wednesday, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

A weather pattern partly linked with El Nino has turned winter upside-down across the U.S. during a week of heavy vacation travel, bringing spring-like warmth to the Northeast, a risk of tornadoes through the South and so much snow across the West that even skiing slopes have been overwhelmed.

Temperature records are skyrocketing across upstate New York as the early winter warmup continues across the region.

Record highs already have been recorded early on Thursday in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse as temperatures top 60 degrees in each city. Albany’s 58 degrees Thursday morning broke the previous record of 57 set on Dec. 24, 1941.

The National Weather Service says high temperatures in some upstate areas could climb into the 70s by the end of the day. Temperatures will cool off on Friday but forecasters say temperatures will remain well above normal for this time of year.

The weather service has issued a wind advisory for parts of western New York, where gusts of up to 55 mph are forecast.