 An unseasonably warm air mass was entrenched over much of central and eastern North America with record highs for much of the region.Several record high temperatures were broken across several states and Canadian provinces from January 7 to January 9 as temperatures rose into the 70s (21–25 °C) as far north as the Ohio Valley with dewpoints in the high 50s and low 60s (14–17 °C) providing additional fuel for storm development.In addition, many areas near the Great Lakes region reached the mid to upper 60s (17–20 °C) which allowed the northern cells to form, while several areas in southern Ontario and Quebec near the Canada-US border reached near 60 °F (16 °C).