The forecasted high temperatures across the United States for Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. A warmup is expected following a blast of Arctic air.
The forecasted high temperatures across the United States for Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. A warmup is expected following a blast of Arctic air next week.

A wave of arctic air is infiltrating the United States, but forecasters say it will soon clear out in a warmup that will send temperatures soaring before Christmas.

A winter storm is expected to bring light to moderate snow across much of the central and northeastern parts of the country, with up to 6 inches in some places, starting over the weekend of Dec. 13. Then, a blast of Arctic air thanks to the polar vortex will set in.

"If it is any consolation, the Arctic blast will leave quickly with the worst conditions only lasting a little over 24 hours," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said. "A significant warmup is in store for much of the central and eastern United States next week."

While the East deals with the bitter cold, states in the West are actually seeing high temperatures 15 to 25 degrees above average, the National Weather Service said.

The warmup will spread west to east, making it across the country by Dec. 18, the weather service said.

How warm will it get?

As the warmup spreads coast-to-coast, many parts of the country could see temperatures 15 to 25 degrees above seasonal averages.

The High Plains region will see some of the strangest warm temperatures, with 60s spreading into western Nebraska and South Dakota, the weather service said. By next weekend, Texas could reach 80 degrees.

Forecast maps show that daytime highs across the Midwest and Northeast are expected to jump as much as 30 degrees, from the 20s to the 50s, between Dec. 15 and Dec. 18.

Will the warming temps ruin chances of a white Christmas?

It's still too soon for forecasters to make confident guesses about which parts of the United States will see a white Christmas, which is defined as at least 1 inch of snow cover on the ground on Christmas day, regardless of whether it actually snows that day.

The rising temperatures are likely to melt snow cover and cause ski conditions to deteriorate ahead of the holiday, AccuWeather said. Still, another cold front is on forecasters' radar after the warmup next week, the National Weather Service said.

Historical data gives us an idea of what the odds are for a white Christmas across the country. In any given year, your best bet for a white Christmas is in Alaska, Minnesota, Maine, upstate New York, Idaho or some of the snowiest mountain ranges in the country, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which produced a map of the probabilities for a white Christmas based on climate data from 1991 to 2020. Read more.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A big change in US weather is coming after weekend snow storm

Reporting by Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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