How Long Will This Warm Winter Weather in Johnston Last?

Old-man winter doesn't seem too interested in showing up this year.

The past few days, the weather here in Johnston has been more like October than December. In fact, the Des Moines metro area likely set a new record high temperature today when it reached 66 degrees at 10 a.m.

The Weather Channel says the average high temperature for December in Johnston is 34 degrees.

And it doesn't look like we'll be getting December weather any time in the next week.

Darn.

According to the National Weather Service, Johnston will see a high near 55 degrees on Tuesday, accompanied by sunny skies.

Wednesday will be a little cooler with a high near 46, but by Thursday we'll jump back to 50 degrees. The temperature should dip down to a high of 40 degrees by Sunday.

So what gives?

Thanks to a stationary Pacific storm that's drenching California with record rainfall, we're getting unseasonably warm weather.

Is it rare? Since 2000, only three times have we been this warm this late in the year—2011, 2006 and 2004, the NWS says.