But an intense low pressure system moving through the Great Lakes will finally bring an end to the record warm temperatures.

Dec 27, 2025

Boxing Day was dominated yet again by unseasonable warmth over much of the country. The core of the record warmth was in the Arklatex region, where as you can see in the CoolWx.com map above, multiple locations set all-time record highs for December. December records included Shreveport (85F, records back to 1874), Texarkana (85F, records back to 1892), and Fayetteville, AR (80F, records back to 1949). Not to belabor the point — but monthly warm record temperatures in December are typically set early in the month. The number of record monthly warm temperatures this week — both maximums and minimums — in such a large part of the country from the Intermountain West to the Southeast is truly incredible.

The record warmth will continue this weekend, with numerous record warm temperatures (forecast record highs for Saturday (top) and Sunday (bottom) shown above).

The Northeast continued to be the main area avoiding the unseasonable warmth, and a southeast moving low pressure system brought wintry precipitation to the region on Friday. The heaviest snow fell in a band from Syracuse to coastal Connecticut, while somewhat warmer and drier air made it into the New York City metro area resulting in some mixed precipitation and less snowfall. Ice from freezing rain and some sleet was the primary impact farther west across Pennsylvania and western New York.

The next storm system moving through this region late Sunday into Monday will be much more intense, but will also track farther north, with wintry precipitation impacts focused more in the northern Great Lakes, upstate New York and northern New England as shown in the NWS Weather Prediction Center (WPC) key messages above.

This storm system will usher in much colder air in its wake, bringing an end to the record warmth. The cold front associated with this system will plunge through the Plains on Sunday, and then across the Southeast Monday. Bands of heavy lake effect snow will occur early next week in the snowbelt regions of the Great Lakes.

Meanwhile, the weather will be quieting down over the West this weekend after a week of flooding rains, high winds, severe thunderstorms, and some heavy mountain snows, with dry weather anticipated by Sunday. NBC News reports that four people died in weather related incidents in California over the last week. A number of locations at higher elevations in California picked up more than an foot of rainfall over the last week. The Weather Prediction Center has a summary of the observed precipitation totals and wind gusts here.