For only the second time this year Chicago’s high temperature surged above 70°. Monday’s official 71° peak afternoon reading was 2006’s highest here, enough to beat the 69° highs in usually warmer Atlanta and Las Vegas. Not since Oct. 18 last fall have Chicagoans been treated to a temperature as warm. But, it’s a thermal benchmark likely to have a very short shelf life. Tuesday’s 74° predicted high is to top Monday’s high. An influx of high cloudiness filters the day’s sun and will determine the extent of warming. It would take only a slight reduction in the extent of this high cloudiness to allow the city’s official high to creep to 77°.
Longer days drive seasonal warming. Days have lengthened 4 hours in Chicago since winter’s open this past Dec. 21. But, the continent’s arctic regions enjoy as much as 16 additional hours of sun, a development which reduces cold air’s ability to surge southward.
-Tom Skilling
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
