It may be Wednesday before the Chicago area is treated to anything resembling normal late-May temperatures. If the passage of a southbound cold front holds off until Wednesday night, the day may well host the first 70° reading in a week. Until then, the region remains mired in an unseasonably chilly weather regime. By Monday, it will have produced five straight days here with readings in the 50s or lower.
O’Hare’s 47° high Friday fell 3 degrees shy of the official site’s coolest on record for the date (44° in 1882). However, it was a different story at Midway Airport where Friday’s 45° peak reading was one for the books—a record breaker that eclipsed the 46° high back in 1966. Never has a May 12 been any colder since records began there in 1928.
The Chicago area wasn’t alone in setting records. Among other record low daytime highs Friday were 44° at LaCrosse, Wis., and 43° at South Bend, Ind.
--Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
