Weather

Weather -   A historic March heat wave has already smashed monthly records in dozens of cities in the West. This unusually early heat will spread into parts of the Plains and will have staying power in the Southwest into next week.

Topping the list of most impressive heat records, so far, was one location in the desert of southeast California.

Wednesday, a reporting station east of North Shore, California, about 45 miles southeast of Palm Springs, recorded a high of 108 degrees.

According to weather historian Christopher Burt, that tied the nation's hottest March temperature on record, previously set in Rio Grande City, Texas, on March 30, 1954 and on March 14, 1902.

If that city sounds a little familiar, this Deep South Texas reporting station recorded what may be the nation's hottest winter temperature just over a month ago.

This also appeared to top California's March state record of 107 degrees in Mecca on March 21, 2004.

An ad hoc committee of meteorologists may examine this 108-degree high to confirm a new record at a later date.

So far, 65 cities have already tied or set new March record highs, from Arizona and California to southern Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and New Mexico.

Phoenix had only its second 100-degree high in March on Wednesday (102 degrees), eight days earlier than their previous record earliest triple-digit high (March 26, 1988).

Other March records set Wednesday included Las Vegas (94 degrees), Reno, Nevada (86 degrees) and Sacramento, California (88 degrees). Highs in the 70s tied or set March records in Laramie (71 degrees) and Casper, Wyoming (78 degrees).

Redwood City, California, hit 90 degrees in March on Wednesday, their third straight high in the 90s, when they hadn't previously reached 90 in March in 96 years of records.

It's so warm some male skiers and snowboarders were seen shirtless carving the slopes at Breckenridge, Colorado, Wednesday.

The National Weather Service has issued extreme heat warnings and heat advisories in the Southwest. This is the first time a heat advisory has been issued in the Bay Area during in March.

It will not only intensify in the Southwest, but it will spread throughout much of the West into parts of the Plains and South later this week into the weekend.

While some cooler air will slide into the northern and central U.S. beginning Sunday, record heat will persist in the Southwest into at least the first half of next week.