Until this year, only two other autumns have made it this far without a single sub-30° temp at O’Hare. Observations at that site have been archived by the National Weather Service since 1959—a period of 45 years. To date this fall, the coolest official temp in the city has been 31° on three occasions: Oct. 5, 17 and this past Monday, Nov. 8. That’s to change in coming days as cold Canadian air spills into the Midwest—a development which could bring low/mid 20s away from Lake Michigan by Friday morning.
While 82% of the snow seasons since 1885 have produced at least a trace of snow by this date, it hasn’t happened yet this year. But, while snow’s been in short supply, sunshine hasn’t. November is typically the area’s second cloudiest month of the year. But, 62% of the month’s possible sunshine has occurred here since Nov. 1-—an amount far in excess of the 40% which is normal.
