Tuesday’s chilly 55° high, a reading more typical of November than September and the coolest daytime temperature here in 4 months, failed by just 3° to reach the 52° record low maximum for the date set 68 years ago in 1938. Record readings are, by their very nature, rare. So challenging a record—as happened Tuesday—underscores the unusual nature of the chilly air mass still dominant as Wednesday dawns. At 55°, Tuesday was 18° below normal, more than 20° cooler than Sunday’s 82° and nearly 30° below the 84° high on Sept. 19 a year ago.
Early season chilly air has been a rare commodity here in the past decade. Five of the past ten Septembers haven’t even produced a sub-60° daytime high. In the past 66 years, the only two readings on a par with Tuesday’s 55° and which occurred as early or earlier were the 51° high on Sept. 17, 1981 and the 55° high on Sept. 15, 1993.
-Tom Skilling
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
