Chicago hasn’t recorded a triple-digit high since July of 1999. That changes Sunday as SW winds whisk intensely hot air into the area, a development which may well produce only the 61st official high at or above 100° here since records began in 1871. (Note: The heat-enhancing “urban heat island” effect has led to a greater number of 100s at the Midway Airport observation site, which has logged 83 days of triple-digit readings since 1928). Advisories for heat have been posted by the National Weather Service across 18 states this weekend from South Carolina west to Texas.
The effects of hot weather led to the hospitalization of 18 people in Paducah, Mayfield and Fulton, Ky. Heat indexes there ranged from 105°-115°. Drought conditions continue to make news. Rainfall at the Quad Cities so far this year is the driest since records began—drier than the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. And Duluth, Minn., has experienced the driest July in the past 57 years.
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
