Weekend weather peaking around 60 coincides with the arrival of winter Saturday.
Winter arrives Saturday, and temperatures are on the rise.
Fortunately, locally melting snowpack and the chance of rain in coming days do not add up to a flooding threat, meteorologists said Wednesday.
The warm-up is forecast to peak Sunday, with highs around 60 challenging the record of 61 set for Dec. 22 in 1998 at Lehigh Valley International Airport, the National Weather Service says. Records date to 1922, said weather service meteorologist Walter Drag.
The reason for the unseasonably warm temperature is a cool-down in the West sending high pressure and southwesterly winds to the Northeast, according to Rob Reale, meteorologist with WeatherWorks in Hackettstown.
"It's kind of a reversal in the pattern, briefly," he said, adding that seasonably cold air is forecast to return for Christmas on Wednesday and into the New Year.
Drag on Wednesday said, "We'll get some snowmelt, no question about it, but as far as flooding goes, we're not really posing a major flood threat at this point anyway."
The rain possible Friday into Monday is not going to total much, according to Drag and Reale, both of whom put total precipitation in the half-inch range.
"It's something to maybe keep our eye on, but not something overly concerning," Reale said.