Bloomington is in for a couple more days of warm weather, matching up with Punxsutawney Phil’s Sunday Groundhog Day prediction of an early spring.
According to meteorologist Jason Puma from the National Weather Service in Indianapolis, Sunday and Monday's 50-degree temperatures are above normal for this time of year, but they aren’t setting any record highs. He said this weather is like January thawing, and it's a good break from cloudy days.
The temperatures are expected to be in the mid- to upper-50s through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. A cold front will move across the country after Tuesday, causing temperatures to fall back into the 30s.
Some students were on campus Sunday enjoying the nice weather. Freshman Palak Sheth took advantage of the sunny weather, choosing a spot against a tree in the arboretum to work on finance homework.
"I came out here because it's so nice," Sheth said.
Though the weather will be just as warm tomorrow, she said she probably won't be out doing the same thing because it will be cloudy, and she has classes.
As the sun was setting on IU's campus, people began leaving their games of frisbee and flag football for Super Bowl parties and warm indoor heating. Bloomington resident Arvids Plesovs, 74, continued to enjoy his walk through campus, stopping to take photos of the Indiana Arc shaded against the sunset-lit Eskenazi Museum of Art.
Plesovs said he's usually on campus at least once a week because he volunteers at WFIU. He said he walks because it's good exercise, and he likes walking through campus because it's more interesting than his neighborhood.
He doesn't mind winter, though, and it's bad this winter has been so warm, Plesovs said. It doesn't allow for some wildlife, such as insects, to die like they should in the winter, which could mean for heavier insect populations in the spring and summer.
Back-and-forth weather patterns are pretty normal for this time of year, Puma said. Hot or cold and rainy or dry patterns move quickly across the country, so there are sometimes quick surges of warm weather followed by cold surges.
Puma said Groundhog Day is a fun tradition, even though it doesn’t have any scientific backing. It was purely coincidental that Punxsutawney Phil predicted warm weather on a warm day. He said sometimes the prediction will be true, sometimes it won't.
