This 10th weekend of meteorological fall 2006 is to rank among the season’s three coolest to date. But hidden by Saturday’s clouds and afternoon showers are major changes in the atmosphere which are likely over the next four to five days to generate a temperature turnaround that may challenge some of November’s largest. The current cold spell bottomed out with Friday morning’s 21° low at O’Hare (teens were observed in many suburbs, including 14° at west suburban Sugar Grove and Rochelle). If current forecast trends verify, a 72° Wednesday high is in the cards here—a stunning 51-degree increase in just five days. That’s only 3 degrees shy of November’s record of a 54-degree five-day surge observed in 1887.
The wintry early season blast of recent days generated 16” of lake-effect snow Friday in Grand Marais in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula while sending 30s south into the Florida Panhandle and prompting freeze warnings across seven Southeast states.
--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.
