As forecasted here from well over a week ago, as the western trough deepened and slid east, so the ridge pumped up the East Coast. The combination of sunshine and enough southwest wind forced temperatures to warm to levels more typical of September and not mid-November.

This of course is in stark contrast to the Nor’easter which hit not even a week ago which brought over a foot of snow to parts of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut and held daytime highs in the 30s. Temperatures as well as snowfall broke records then with New York City seeing their earliest sub-32 high since 1988. Today it was all about the 60s and 70s.

Check out these highs up the East Coast..

Of course, when looking at this map, the mighty cold has been the dominant feature with lows this morning dipping below zero for the first time since late last winter across western and northern North Dakota, while parts of Montana dropped below -10 for a second straight night.

Check out the latest snow cover chart. This is quite impressive for the time of year.

Despite the warmth of Monday, notice the residual snowcover left behind by the Nor’easter over New England. Bare in mind that highs today reached the 70s up there today.

The 24-hour temperatures drops have also been very impressive with the knife edge cold front which has been marching east. Here was 24-hour temperature departures from during the day Monday.