Record-breaking heat in the Southeast will yield to colder weather early in March

The weather in Alabama this week has been truly remarkable. Several cities have been setting new high temperature records with each passing day, and two locations, namely Birmingham and Montgomery, tied their highest temperatures ever recorded in the month of February on Wednesday. It has truly felt more like April than February. It will stay very warm through Saturday, and only modest cooling is expected Sunday and beyond. But down the road, specifically the week after next, there looks like there will be a rather significant change to colder weather. An "atmospheric bowling ball" , that is a pocket of cold air in the upper atmosphere, will dig into the southeastern states. This, combined with an upper-atmospheric trough over the western Atlantic, will cause the westerlies to buckle, and in effect carve out a new trough over the eastern states. That will effectively end the warm spell, and start at least a brief period of colder weather. And that is not a surprise given how early in the year it is.