Tuesday’s 87° high at both O’Hare and Midway was the city’s warmest temperature in the 18 days since the 89° high on Aug. 4. While only 7° above normal, only two Aug. 22 daytime highs have been any warmer here in the past 30 years. The 87° reading here was the same high recorded at Oklahoma City Tuesday. But there, the reading was significant because it marked the first time in 56 days readings failed to exceed 90°.
Cordoba, Alaska, on the state’s southern coast, has been swamped by 13” of rain in just the past two days. Like Chicago, August is southern Alaska’s wettest month. But the rains of the past two weeks have been extraordinary from the southeast Alaska Panhandle north to the Alaska Range. Normally the result of typhoon remnants, this year’s rains have been spawned by non-tropical systems and have buried glaciers above the 4,000 ft. level under snow.
-Tom Skilling
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
