(CNN) — Are you sick with a cold? Mother Nature has news: Next week will see a dramatic change in weather patterns that will bring an end to the brutal cold.
Few places in the continental United States have escaped the cold over the past week. Wind chills dropped below -40 degrees Celsius in central parts of the country, breaking hundreds of temperature records, leading to one of the coldest NFL games on record, and hosting the coldest caucuses in the country. History in Iowa.
But next week, the bitter cold will be a distant memory across the continental US as unseasonably mild conditions bring an end to the cold snap. In some places, it will feel more like March than January.
Above-average temperatures are forecast for the lower 48 states through Tuesday, according to the Climate Prediction Center’s temperature forecast.
A significant change in weather patterns in the upper layers of the atmosphere, where the jet stream flows, would be responsible for this change.
During the current cold pattern, the jet stream (a river of air that acts as a separator between warm and cold air) travels across the southern part of the United States. This condition allows a burst of deep air to exit the Arctic, pass through Canada, and into the United States.
But the jet stream will move further north next week. This would do two things at once: trap very cold air in Canada and allow warm air from the tropics to move north toward the United States.
A warming trend will begin Sunday across parts of the western and north-central United States. Mild conditions will gradually expand in scope and strength over more parts of the country early next week.
Chicago may finally break the freezing point on Monday. This may be the first time since Saturday afternoon that thermometers in the city have crossed the zero degree Celsius mark.
But the central and eastern United States will see the sharpest changes in temperature from week to week in the middle of the week.
Parts of the Plains and Midwest will go from below average 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit last Sunday to 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit above average next Wednesday.
Both Des Moines, Iowa and Minneapolis will experience a 40 to 50 degree Fahrenheit temperature swing from this week’s brutal cold to unseasonably warm weather next week.
The highest temperature in Des Moines on Sunday did not exceed -21.6 degrees Celsius. For next Wednesday, the maximum is expected around -1.1 Celsius, which is more like March. Minneapolis only reached -16.1 degrees Celsius on Sunday, but will reach a spring high of around 4.4 degrees next Wednesday.
Further east, it will feel more like late February. Mid-week highs of 4.4 degrees Celsius will be common in Indianapolis, Cleveland, Philadelphia and New York City.
And according to the Climate Prediction Center, this above-average heat is likely to continue across the country until the end of January.
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