Winds gusted to 43 m.p.h. Thursday amid frigid January level temperatures averaging more than 20 degrees below normal. By nightfall, windchills in the area had hovered near 0° for 15 consecutive hours—and were expected to continue in that range all night. Though Thursday’s mildest temperature of 41° occurred at midnight, readings had plunged to the teens by daybreak, making it the coldest Thanksgiving daytime temperature here since the upper teens recorded in 1945. Wind gusts hit 61 m.p.h. at Chicago’s shoreline at the Harrison-Dever Crib.
Blizzard conditions Thursday led to the closure of the Mackinac Bridge for a time in northern Lower Michigan. Travel over parts of the state’s Upper Peninsula was halted by whiteout conditions brought on by nearly 50 m.p.h. gusts. The 17.8” snow tallies at Rudyard and Kinross (southwest of Sault Ste. Marie) were records for the date, while 10-12” fell near Traverse City and 6” was down on Michigan’s western shoreline.
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
