Santa may want to install air conditioning and heavy-duty wiper blades on his sleigh for his Christmas Eve ride into what U.S. weather forecasters say may be record-breaking warmth and wet.
Along the East Coast, absurdly warm weather was expected to shatter records Thursday, including in Washington, D.C., where a forecast high of 75 degrees may top the record of 69 set in 1933, said meteorologist Richard Bann of the National Weather Service.
Thermometers will appear out of whack in Portland, Maine, where the forecast 59 could melt the previous record of 53 degrees set in 1957, Bann said.
Bangor and Caribou are projected to narrowly edge out previous marks of 56 and 48 degrees, respectively, according to Francis Kredensor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Caribou. If they hit those numbers, both cities would exceed previous records, set Dec. 24, 2003, by 1 degree.
The normal temperature for this time of year is 31 in Bangor and 24 in Caribou. If forecasts are correct, each town would be about 25 degrees warmer than average.
It’s been an unusually balmy December in Maine. The only day Bangor or Caribou saw lower-than-normal temperatures was Dec. 1, according to the weather service.
“It’s quite impressive to have such a sustained period like this,” Kredensor said.
That warm air brings rain with it. Steady rain rolled into Maine on Wednesday night, and is expected to make for a soggy Christmas Eve. The forecast calls for skies to clear on Christmas, with temperatures expected to reach the low 50s in the southern part of the state, and upper 30s in northern Maine.
Dense fog earlier Wednesday prompted weather service advisories in central Maine.
The fog and inclement weather caused few delays at Maine’s airports, though heavy rain caused problems for flights to and from New York City and Washington, D.C., in the late morning and early afternoon.
“It looks like the Eastern Seaboard, from Florida into New England, has the potential to set records for Christmas Eve,” Kredensor said. “There will be no snow on Christmas. It’s just too warm over the Eastern U.S. to have any snow.”
The same weather pattern that drives up the mercury in the East is causing torrential rains in the Pacific Northwest, he said. While late November through early December is typically the wettest time of the year in the Pacific Northwest, this season has been abnormally drenching.
In Oregon, record rains this month have caused three deaths, mudslides and evacuations.
“We just continue to get day after day of rain,” meteorologist Colby Neuman of the National Weather Service said.
December is not over yet but Oregon’s Portland International Airport has already broken a 75-year record for the most rain ever measured in a month: 13.5 inches so far.
In Oregon City, a Portland suburb, authorities evacuated two apartment complexes Monday because of dangers posed by a nearby landslide, police said.
A dry end to the week is predicted for Friday and Saturday, but another storm is forecast for next week, Neuman added.
Washington state is similarly soggy, with Seattle receiving more than 9 inches of rain so far this month, the National Weather Service said.