Much of the country, in stark contrast to the preceding five weeks, is in the grip of winter’s largest cold air mass to date. Tuesday’s Indiana/Michigan lake snows, which topped out at 9” at St. Joseph, Mich., and 8” at Fish Lake in La Porte County, Ind., are now history. But, the chill which has followed is the most formidable here in 11 months.
Morning lows were expected to vary widely across the Chicago area, ranging from 11° on the city’s lakefront to as low as -4° over the region’s heaviest cover of snow west toward the Fox Valley, DeKalb, and Rockford, and north through McHenry and other Wisconsin border counties. These readings are well below the coldest reading all last January: the 17° O’Hare minimum last Jan. 26.
This winter has a lot of catching up to do in terms of cold weather and snow. Chicago’s seen just 27 percent of its typical subfreezing daytime highs and just 41 percent the amount of snow considered normal by Jan. 17.
--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.
