On a stormy day 82 years ago—March 12, 1923—Chicago recorded its all-time low air pressure, 28.70 inches.
As provided by Chicago weather historian Frank Wachowski, the following annotation appears in Chicago Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) records on that day: “The lowest barometric pressure in the history of the Chicago office was registered on March 12th in connection with a thunderstorm, sleet and snow and strong gales. The reading, reduced to sea level, being 28.70 inches.”
Wachowski provides this additional information: The record low air pressure value occurred at 7 a.m., with the wind roaring in from the northeast with gusts to 60 m.p.h. High and low temperatures that day were 41º and 31º and water content of precipitation was 0.67 inches, along with 0.2 inches of glaze.
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