BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The golf courses are packed and the ice rinks are empty as Cincinnati enjoys December temperatures that should reach 20 degrees above average today.
The September-like days have some people raking leaves in their shorts and others hanging holiday lights in their shirt sleeves. Temperatures Tuesday reached into the upper 50s, well above normal highs in the upper 40s. And the warm weather is expected to stay with us into this weekend, forecasters said.
"I can't remember it ever being this warm in December," said Josie Louis, Cincinnati Recreation Commission special events coordinator. The week's weather has melted the Fountain Square ice rink, where skating is a holiday tradition.
Crews worked much of Thanksgiving Day creating ice for the rink, Ms. Louis said. But the warm weather won out, and by Sunday the rink was closed. She hopes it can be refrozen for holiday shoppers downtown this weekend.
But the warm trend is expected to continue at least until Sunday, said John Franks, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Wilmington.
The northern jet stream is stationed well north of the
Tristate, bringing unseasonably warm weather to much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation. A record high of 66 was set Tuesday in Minneapolis, breaking the 1962 record of 62. Grand Island, Neb., saw a high of 66, beating the 64-degree record set in 1964.
At the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Tuesday's high was 57 degrees. That was lower than predicted, but still above the normal high of 47 degrees. The high is expected to be 66 today.
Weather page at cincinnati.com