Bitterly cold air, trapped for three weeks over Alaska and the Yukon, cut loose and roared south all the way to the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday.
The teens which greet area residents Thursday morning occur this early in fall on average only once every 17 years.
Chicago temperatures plummeted Tuesday night and Wednesday 33° in just 24 hours —from 55° to 22°—a drop equivalent to the change in normal daytime highs from late October to January. The plunge was accompanied by 24 consecutive hours of 30+ m.p.h. wind gusts which generated single digit wind chills. Coming as it did after one of the mildest November opens on the books (12th warmest of the past 135), the change was a brutal one. And the early season chill continues Thursday. A predicted high of 30° is to make November 17 the fifth coldest ever and the coldest for the date since the 14° high 46 years ago in 1959.
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
