Not since last September have Chicagoans been treated to a temperature as warm as Wednesday’s 80°. The mercury reached the summerlike level at 1:30 pm and remained there for five minutes—retreating to June-like mid and upper 70s the remainder of the afternoon. This year’s first 80° high occurred three weeks earlier than the average date of April 28 and marked only the third time an April 6 high temp has been as warm. Over 135 years of official temperature records here, only 17 have hosted a warmer reading any earlier. April, 2005 is running nearly 10° above normal—12th warmest since 1871. Were the trend to continue, April would become the seventh of the past eight months to produce a temperature surplus.
The recent warm weather has impacted Lake Michigan’s temperature. In the past two weeks, Chicago’s shoreline water temp has warmed 10°—rising from 37° to 47°.
-Tom Skilling
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
