TEXARKANA - A little over a week ago, Texarkana had a record low temperature of minus-1 degrees. Fast forward a week, and the temperature reached 72 degrees.
More spring-like temperatures are expected this weekend.
The high was expected to be in the upper 60s Saturday and reach 70 again on Sunday.
The extremes can be attributed to how quickly one air mass retreated and how quickly another moved in, said Jason Hansford, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Shreveport, Louisiana.
"The arctic air mass retreated quickly to the east," Hansford said. "We have also had increasing south winds that brought in a warmer and more humid air mass from the Gulf. It was a pretty quick turnaround and it quickly warmed us up."
The same humid air mass resulted in thunderstorms, hail and several inches of rain on Thursday night in Texarkana.
February and March can also bring some "pretty wild weather swings" to this area, Hansford said.
During the early hours of Sunday, Feb.14, the first of two major winter storms began to push into the region, bringing a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain to the area, with the heaviest snowfall occurring Sunday night into the morning hours of Monday.
The air mass was one of the coldest air masses to ever reach the region and, for some locations, it was the coldest ever.
Texarkana broke a daily record on Feb. 16 with a low of minus-1 degrees. The previous low was 9 degrees in 1903.
By the evening hours on Feb. 16, the second winter storm began to push into the area. By the time the second winter storm left the area, locations in southwestern Arkansas and northeastern Texas reported as much as 18-22 inches of snow from the two events combined.