A winter Sunday that felt like spring tied a 110-year-old Chattanooga record.
Temperatures reached 73 degrees, matching the 1907 high and continuing an unseasonably warm stretch in Southeast Tennessee even as the Midwest grappled with an ice storm.
"That front has almost become stationary," National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Pritchett said of the wintry weather to the north. "We're on the good side, so to speak, and we're on the outside looking in at what's going."
The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center forecast a warmer-than-usual winter for the area, and the warmth wave is expected to last for at least another 10 days, according to Pritchett.
Today's high temperature could flirt with another record.
The previous high for Jan. 16, set in 1943, is also 73 degrees. The National Weather Service's Sunday evening prediction called for Monday's high to match that mark.
"If we see enough sunshine, like we saw today, there's a chance we could get into the 70s again," WRCB-TV chief meteorologist Paul Barys said in the station's 6 p.m. newscast.
Barys emphasized that a 70-degree high would be 20 degrees above average for this time of year. The warm front arrived just one week after below freezing temperatures brought a light snow dusting and forced some area schools to close.
"It's nothing too complicated," Pritchett said. "It's really just a basic warm front."
Rain is possible Wednesday, but high temperatures are expected to remain in the 60s throughout the week.
"Winter is a time period where there can be extremes," Pritchett said. "Last week we were in the single digits. Now we're counting records. Essentially, we've got a big high-pressure system over the Tennessee Valley."
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.