Wilmington sets record high temperature for Christmas Day

An 83-year-old record fell Thursday when a high temperature of 68 degrees was recorded at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport in Pittston Township, according to the National Weather Service in Binghamton, New York. The Big Apple is forecast to hit the mid-70s by the afternoon. Fontana will be at 44 degrees, and Pomona will be more than 10 degrees warmer at 56 on Christmas day.

In 2002, the area had a very “White Christmas”, with record-making snowfall of more than a foot on Christmas Day, according to records.

New York City could see similar warmth on Christmas Eve than it had on July 4 (when it was 75), the weather service said.

Christmas Eve also broke records, as Manhattan sat around 72 degrees; the record had previously been set at 63 degrees in 1996.

Wearing shorts, sneakers and no socks, a man rides a rental bike through a downtown Manhattan street on Christmas Eve on December 24, 2015, in NY, as warm temperatures, rising into the 70’s in NY, shattered previous records.

“We now know what it feels like in Eastern Canada to spend Christmas in Charleston, South Carolina, or Tallahassee, Florida”, he told CBC News.

The warmer temperatures are attributed to the El Nino weather pattern and may linger into January. The system spawned tornadoes that felled trees and brought heavy rains and unsafe wind gusts.

On Monday and throughout the week, temperatures are expected to decline with highs in the 60s and 50s, although the rain is likely to continue.

And while conditions will improve during the day, the weather service writes, showers and patchy fog are expected to return Christmas Eve at night, which could make driving a challenge.

It’s not going to be a White Christmas in New York City this year, but it will be in Arizona. On Friday, snow will head east to the Rockies, Utah, northern Arizona, northern New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. “This last happened in 2010 when there was 3 inches of snow on the ground Christmas morning”, NWS stated.