Not since early June has a cooler weekend greeted Chicagoans. It’s a huge change from Friday’s summerlike highs, which included 83° at O’Hare and Midway, and the 88° peak reading far south at Kankakee. For many parts of the metro area, it was the warmest weather in 2 weeks.
A sprawling Canadian high with meteorological autumn’s coolest air yet sits draped across virtually the entire northeast quarter of North America as Saturday dawns. It’s responsible for slashing daytime temperatures more than 30 degrees at Bayfield, Wis., from 85° Thursday to 53° Friday. Local residents report the earliest autumn color change there in years.
Powerful thunderstorms at the periphery of the incoming chill bombarded sections of northern Iowa and southern Wisconsin overnight with hail up to 1” in diameter. In Michigan, powerful storm gusts downed trees in Kent and Ottawa counties—an area which includes Grand Rapids.
--Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
