Enjoy the warm temperatures now.

S. Elwynn Taylor, professor of agronomy who provides the weather forecast for WOI AM-FM Radio in Ames, said the warm temperatures have been setting records the past couple of days.

“We set a record Friday at noon when the temperature reached 66 degrees, breaking the record of 65 degrees that stood for 20 to 30 years,” Elwynn said.

He said the temperatures have been running 15 to 25 degrees warmer than usual for this time of year.

“The National Weather Service tells us that we’ve certainly got another 10 days of warm temperatures,” Elwynn said.

He said the first two weeks of November were colder than usual, and the last two weeks have been much warmer than usual.

Elwynn said the temperatures won’t be lowering gradually but will experience a sharp drop instead.

“We sort of expect it to swing the other way and be cooler than usual [in about 10 days],” he said. Elwynn said central Iowa will most likely experience bitterly cold temperatures at the start of the new year.

“We know the immediate cause [of the warm temperatures] is the airflow at about 18,000 feet,” he said. “The flow of air … has been from the West or the Southwest for the past couple of weeks, where normally it would be Canadian air coming our way.”

Elwynn said the larger cause of the weather pattern “does appear to be associated with la Ni¤a.”

The unseasonably warm weather also has been affecting Ames area businesses.

Mary Jo Coats, senior merchandise manager at JCPenney, located in North Grand Mall, 2801 Grand Ave., said customers are not buying as many winter weather items as usual.

“A lot of your heavy coats and mittens and gloves, that type of thing, has definitely slowed up,” Coats said.

The decrease in sales has not been “significant,” she said, “but it’s definitely a drop.”

“It’s tough on business because you need to move your winter stuff on out of there,” she said. “But personally, it’s very nice.”

Holly Gelner, manager at Target, 620 Lincoln Way, said her staff has not seen a big drop in sales of winter apparel and gear.

“It would be nice to have some cold weather, though, to push products a little more,” Gelner said. “I don’t see that we’re not getting sales [because of the weather]. People are pretty much trained that today it could be 70 [degrees], and tomorrow it could be 20 [degrees] in Iowa.”

Al Sorenson, owner of Dairy Queen, 3308 Orion Drive, said the weather has been good for business. He said this is the first time in 50 years that Dairy Queen has been open this late in the year.

“Weather really determines whether we have a good day or not,” Sorenson said. “[Business] is excellent, especially this weekend, it’s really phenomenal. We hope it continues.”