Christmas weather: Unusually warm with chance of flash floods

The record high for Christmas Eve was already broken at midnight Thursday when the temperature topped 64 degrees.

Some forecasts predicted a high of up to 17 C during the day, before the mercury drops to an overnight low of 5 C.

According to the National Weather Service, Thursday marked the 14th day of at least 50 degrees in Rochester, a monthly record.

More snow is expected next week, after an out-of-nowhere blast of six inches to eight inches nailed the metro area Thursday as people were getting set for Friday’s Christmas holiday. During the day Sunday, cold air will rush into our area from the north, and temperatures will tumble.

Some meteorologists are pointing to El Niño as the primary cause of the higher-than-average temperatures.

Thus far, this New York City December has been 13.1 degrees above normal and is on pace to be the warmest December ever in the city, according to Storm Team 4.

Forecasts suggest 2015 will end and 2016 will begin with more seasonable temperatures in the 30s and 40s.

Want warmer weather? Head to New York City, which is usually in a deep freeze during the holidays.

As of earlier this week, this month alone saw more than 2,600 record-high temperatures – and many more are expected before the new year.

Oklahoma City will see a high of 57 degrees on Christmas Eve, nine degrees above normal.

The previous Christmas Eve warm weather record in London was 12.8.

To qualify as an official white Christmas, there must be one inch of snow on the ground at 7 a.m. on Christmas Day. The old record was December 22 set in 1998 and again in 1998.

Because precipitation is coming in the form of rain, not snow, NY could see isolated flooding issues due to persistent downfall.

“All in all, I think we’re going to stay above average for this time of year”, he said.

“If somebody is planning to travel out there, they should find another route”, said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service.