(In southern WA state the temperatures were below freezing on the same day.)

A weather station mounted on a tide gauge on the picturesque island of Kodiak, Alaska recorded an air temperature of 67°F on Dec. 26, which if verified would become the state's record high for the month.

The big picture: Such astonishingly mild conditions in America's Arctic state comes at the end of a month that largely featured extreme cold across much of the region. The warm spell, which reached inland areas and turned snow to freezing rain and rain, turned roads into sheets of ice early this week.