Spring, 2005 officially arrives at 6:33 a.m. Sunday morning. That’s the moment the sun’s most direct rays fall on the equator. For three months, these rays have been creeping northward, a process which has allowed days in the Northern Hemisphere to lengthen slowly. But, as is so often the case this time of year, truly springlike weather isn’t here yet. Saturday’s damp, occasionally rainy pattern—which may well include wet flakes of snow, especially in the Illinois counties adjacent to Wisconsin—will have exited. But the sun which breaks through the overcast Sunday afternoon is only likely to warm temps to seasonable levels—not the 60s which dominated Chicago’s far southern suburbs Friday.
Saturday’s rain isn’t all bad news. The first 18 days of March have ranked 10th driest of the past 134 years here. Late Friday’s 0.33” monthly rain tally was just 24 percent of normal and the driest March open here in 11 years—since 1994.
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
