In the first six and a half days of December, more than 100 high-temperature records were broken or tied in the major cities of the northeastern United States.
With the average temperature between Dec. 1 and Dec. 6 at about 15 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, this warm spell improves the chances of making 1998 the warmest year in the 12-state Northeast region since records were first kept in 1895, said Keith Eggleston, senior climatologist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell.
To break the all-time, all-year, average high temperature, December needs to average 2.7 degrees above the 30-year average. With the jump start of warmer-than-usual temperatures, Eggleston said if, from now until the end of the month, temperatures average 27.5 degrees the Northeast will have no problem breaking the old record of 49.5 degrees set in 1953.
Before December Eggleston gave the Northeast a 33 percent chance of setting an all-time high average temperature. "Now, it's about a 50 percent chance, maybe even a little better than 50 percent," Eggleston said this week.
In fact among the dozens of new high-temperature records set, there were 17 major cities that either tied or broke their all-time high December temperatures. On Sunday, Dec. 6, Ithaca set an all-time, high-temperature record for December at 69 degrees, surpassing the 68-degree mark set, coincidentally, on Dec. 6, 1982.
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