The balmy — by Minnesota standards — start to December is poised to turn record-setting as temperatures rose into the 50s in the Twin Cities Thursday and even the 60s in the southwestern part of the state.

And Friday is looking to be another day of record warmth across the state, albeit a tad cooler across the state, the National Weather Service said.

“Not very often can we say this in December, but … crack a window,” the weather service wrote in a social media posting.

December is off to a warmer-than-normal start in the Twin Cities as highs have been above freezing every day this month, including Wednesday’s peak of 47. With the sun out Thursday, the temperature soared even higher and threaten to eclipse the daily record of 54 degrees set in 1939.

As midday Thursday arrived, the weather service was reporting a Twin Cities-best 55 degrees in Lakeville and a statewide warmest of 63 in the southwestern Minnesota cities of Madison and Appleton. Even Moorhead got into the back to the 50s groove, with an early afternoon reading of 59.

Ely, nestled on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, was at 48 and rising as of 2 p.m.

The scene was bustling midday Thursday at sunbathed John Rose MN Oval in Roseville, where 110,000 square feet of ice for pleasure, speed and hockey skaters alike has been refrigerated for the past four weeks.

“I’ve been selling tickets all morning,” ticket seller Nancy Suter said. “They’ve been selling like hotcakes.”

Suter said that among the patrons at the oval, which did have to close for a couple days during a brief warm spell last month, was “this one guy out there with just a short-sleeve T-shirt.”

A high of 61 degrees was forecast Thursday for Redwood Falls and Marshall in southwestern Minnesota with upper 50s in places such as Windom, Worthington, Fairmont, Mankato and Bird Island.

Friday should be slightly cooler but will still feel more like April than December. Highs are expected to reach the upper 40s and possibly 50, the weather service said. The record high at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the official weather reporting station for the metro area, is 50 in 1990.

No arctic fronts are in sight, but a weekend cooldown could mean light snow Saturday. It shouldn’t be much — less than an inch likely — but “just enough to cause slick roads,” the weather service said.

Behind the snow, highs Sunday and into the middle of next week are forecast to drop into the 30s, with lows in the upper teens and into 20s, the weather service said.