AccuWeather.com Facebook Fan. Rick A. captured this beautiful daffodil in Stamford, Conn., Sunday morning. Upload pictures of flowers blooming early in your neighborhood to @breakingweather or the AccuWeather.com Facebook page. By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist
Mar 18, 2012; 5:22 PM ET
Unseasonable and record warmth will persist across the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. on Monday, winter's last full day, with no signs of chilly weather returning in the foreseeable future.
Spring officially starts early Tuesday morning at 1:14 a.m. EDT, but many might argue that Monday feels more like spring is about to end, not winter.
Temperatures on Monday are once again set to soar into the 70s as far north as the Great Lakes with widespread highs in the 80s set to bake both the South and Ohio Valley.
Even parts of Michigan will climb out of the 70s, while 90-degree heat sizzles deep South Texas.
The warmth is so unusual for mid-March that record highs will once again be set from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest.
The latter region is where it will be hard for any community not to break a record with temperatures soaring 20 to 40 degrees above highs that are typical for this time of year.
International Falls., Minn., (nicknamed the "Icebox of the Nation") is set to shatter Monday's record of 60 degrees from 1918 with a high of 72 degrees in the forecast.
Temperatures on Monday in Chicago will approach 80 degrees, a threshold the city has topped every day since Wednesday. Never before has Chicago recorded so many 80-degree days in March.
A sampling of other cities set to experience record warmth on Monday include:
The arrival of cooler air will prevent cities throughout eastern New England, including Boston, from joining the above list. Regardless, highs Monday will still be quite mild for mid-March.
After spring officially starts, temperatures will once again be on the rise across the Northeast Tuesday into Thursday as records are challenged or topped from the South to the Great Lakes.
During the same time, a stubborn storm will put a lid on record warmth across the Plains. This storm is the culprit behind the severe weather and flooding the southern and central Plains are bracing for.
However, the storm will not be able to hold temperatures below typical mid-March highs outside of the High Plains. The same will be true when the storm drops into the Southeast this coming weekend.
There are also signs that cooler air will attempt to plunge into the Northeast later this week and then again during the first part of next week.
However, winter jackets will likely still not be needed. At worst, AccuWeather.com Long Range Meteorologist Jack Boston feels that the cool air will only return temperatures closer to normal.
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