Friday’s 83°, the warmest of 2006 and the highest temperature logged here since Oct. 5, is just the beginning if cloud cover and winds behave as predicted. The Chicago area and much of the Midwest is headed for the region’s first string of 90° highs Sunday through Tuesday. The heat is expected to arrive in the midst of the most humid weather in nine months. Dew points, the preferred measure of atmospheric moisture by meteorologists, are to hit the low 70s Sunday afternoon. That implies a level of mugginess not unlike that found regularly on this nation’s Gulf Coast and in the tropics.
The incoming round of summerlike weather, tempered in lakeshore areas Saturday by southeast winds off still-chilly lake waters, will put the Memorial Day holiday on track to become the warmest weekend of the past 37 weeks overall. Not since Sept. 10-11 has a weekend produced higher temperatures in Chicago.
—By 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.
