After the state's second-warmest winter on record, several Arkansas cities set record or near-record high temperatures Monday, the first day of spring.
Fayetteville's high of 85 degrees broke the 79-degree record set in 1988 and again in 2011, said meteorologist Karen Hatfield of the National Weather Service in Tulsa.
Harrison's 90 degrees tied the city's record set in 1907, and Fort Smith's reading of 90 degrees was one degree shy of its record of 91, also set in 1907. Mammoth Spring and Salem each reported 92-degree highs for Monday, and Mountain Home recorded a reading of 90 degrees.
"We had all the ingredients for the warmth," Hatfield said. "It's been pretty dry in the South, and we had a warm winter. Spring's heat energy wasn't used up in trying to evaporate any moisture."
High temperature records weren't broken only in Arkansas.
St. Louis was at 86 degrees Monday and broke a record of 83 set in 2012. In Texas, Lubbock's 92 degrees broke a 101-year record.
Tulsa recorded a high of 92 degrees Monday, breaking the record set in 1907. Even western areas of the United States recorded above-average temperatures. Colorado Springs, Colo., reached 80 degrees Monday, breaking the 74-degree record set in 1907.
"It must have been a hot day on March 20, 1907," Hatfield said.
Monday's warm day in Arkansas was caused by several factors, said meteorologist Lance Pyle of the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.
The state recorded the second-warmest three months of winter, he said. Temperatures in December, January and February were 5.4 degrees above average. The warmest three months of winter on record were in 1931-32 when the state saw a 6.6-degree above-average temperature.
On Monday, a high pressure system stalled in the southern United States, and winds from the southwest prevailed, pushing the temperatures up.
Also, more than two-thirds of the state is in drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln organization that records weekly drought information across the country. Those drought conditions make the weather even warmer.
Also affecting the state's weather is a La Nina effect -- a weather phenomenon where equatorial Pacific Ocean water is cooler than average and keeps cooler winter weather farther north in the United States, Pyle said.
In Harrison, people flocked the ice cream stores Monday.
"We had a pretty quick day," said Aaron Bullington, manager of the TCBY on U.S. 62 in the Boone County town. "People were coming in all day looking for something cold."
In Fayetteville, homeowners turned on air-conditioning units.
Kathy Taylor, an employee of Gary's One Hour Air Conditioning and Heating, said workers were out all day on service calls.
"It's been a busy day for us," she said. "It makes up for the mild winter. People don't turn their furnaces on as much when it's warm."
But, people will probably turn off the air conditioning today, forecasters say.
A cool front is expected to bring rain to the state this afternoon and evening, and drop temperatures into the mid-40s in Northwest Arkansas and the lower 50s in the southern region of the state.
Temperatures are forecast to reach the 70s by Friday, and a round of storms -- some possibly severe -- is expected by the weekend.
"It'll cool somewhat," Hatfield said of next week's weather. "But the long-range forecasts favor above-average temperatures for the summer. Odds are we are probably done with any more freezes until next winter."
State Desk on 03/22/2017