NOAA's Martin Hoerling on March heat wave: "Why wouldn't we embrace it as a darn good outcome...This was not the wicked wind of the east. This was the good wind of the south."

Associated Press

Meteorologist Martin Hoerling said the main cause was a persistent warm wind sending toasty air north from the Gulf of Mexico. The study is not peer-reviewed and some outside scientists say it is short-sighted.

"Climate change was certainly a factor, but it was certainly a minor factor," Hoerling said.

He said the bigger issue was wind patterns. Low pressure in the Pacific Northwest and high pressure in New England created a perfect funnel, like the gutter lane in a bowling alley, for warm air in the Gulf of Mexico to head north. That air is about 15 to 20 degrees warmer than the air in the Midwest. From time to time that air heads north, but what is unusual is that the wind pattern stayed that way for about two weeks.

"''Why wouldn't we embrace it as a darn good outcome," Hoerling said. "This was not the wicked wind of the east. This was the good wind of the south."