If there were any snow or ice around to melt, it would be gurgling into the storm drains this week as we head into a sort of January thaw-without-melting. The forecast calls for afternoon highs in the low 60s today, and - after cooler (but still mild) weather tomorrow and Wednesday - near 60 again on Thursday and Friday.

Those highs are approaching 20 degrees above normal for this time of year. The 30-year average for BWI is for daytime highs of 41 degrees and lows of 24.  The record for a Jan. 9 for Baltimore is 75 degrees, reached in 1937.

The record high for any day in January for Baltimore is 79 degrees, reached twice - on Jan. 14, 1932, and again on Jan. 26, 1950.

So far this month we're running more than 6 degrees above normal, averaging 39 degrees for the month through the 8th. That number seems certain to rise this week. It follows an unusually cold and snowy December.

All this mild weather comes to us courtesy of the jet stream, which is keeping all the cold, snowy weather bottled up to our north, while air streaming in from the Pacific and the Gulf brings us mild weather and occasional rain showers. Sure beats shoveling.