After shivering in an unseasonable chill most of the fall season, Chicagoans, who enjoyed a fourth 60-degree day Monday (at Midway Airport) find themselves on the precipice of a late season temperature record. The 60s predicted Tuesday and Wednesday would produce the longest late season string of 60s ever observed at the South Side site. Records there extend back 78 years to 1928. Until now, a string of five 60s in late November 1998 has been the longest at Midway.
Temperatures at these levelsare a rare commodity at this time of year. Only 3% of the city’s high temperatures in the final week of November and first week of December have reached or exceeded 60°.
Scattered rains the next two days become heavier Thursday. A suite of computer forecasts puts rainfall here at 2.50”. On only two occasions since 1870 has the city received 2” or more of precipitation in November’s final 11 days.
--By 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.
