The 45 m.p.h. gust which swept O’Hare at 9 a.m. Thursday morning in the midst of the 36 consecutive hours of high winds, is the second strongest since meteorological autumn began Sept. 1. A 48 m.p.h. gust there nearly two months ago on September 22 remains the season’s strongest. Winds hit 52 m.p.h. Thursday at Chicago’s perennially windy Harrison-Dever Crib three miles off the Lake Michigan shoreline and reached 49 m.p.h. at Waukegan. The dome of water which piled up in the persistent NNE flow boosted lake levels at the Calumet Harbor NOAA lake level measurement site 22” above levels observed in calmer winds three days earlier. But, wind velocities had declined so rapidly late Thursday that lake levels had already pulled back 12”.
Sporadic cloud breaks are likely to offer Chicagoans glimpses of sun Friday and Saturday. But cold air and NNE winds predicted late Saturday threaten lake-effect snow showers into Sunday.
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist
