March 23, 2012 - CHICAGO - The United States and parts of Canada have come out of winter to find a lingering ridge of high pressure inducing summer-like conditions.

The map above shows surface temperature anomalies during March 13-19 compared to averages for those dates over the last 10 years. More than 1,054 locations set new daily high temperatures records and 627 saw new record lows. "Records are not only being broken across the country, they're being broken in unusual ways,' reports NASA's Adam Voiland. "Chicago, for example, saw temperatures above 26.6° Celsius (80° Fahrenheit) every day between March 14-18, breaking records on all five days.

For context, the National Weather Service noted that Chicago typically averages only one day in the eighties each in April. And only once in 140 years of weather observations has April produced as many 80°Fahrenheit days as this March," Volland wrote. "Meanwhile, Climate Central reported that in Rochester, Minnesota, the overnight low temperature on March 18 was 16.6° Celsius (62° Fahrenheit), a temperature so high it beat the record high of 15.5°Celsius (60° Fahrenheit) for the same date," Volland added. -Discovery News