Cool high pressure pushes into northeast Illinois today—and even with the sun Tuesday, temperatures will be below normal, especially along the lakefront where readings could fail to reach 40° due to a persistent east-to-northeast wind off the cold Lake Michigan waters.
The Vernal Equinox occurs Tuesday, marking the start of astronomical spring in Chicago—and it seems that the metro area was just waiting for that event. A significant warm-up will begin Wednesday, and unseasonably mild readings are forecast the remainder of this week through next weekend. Along with the higher temperatures, showers or thunderstorms will be mentioned in the forecast almost daily.
Meanwhile, it will take a while to warm up over the extensive snow cover left in the wake of the St. Patrick’s Day storm in the Northeast, and also much of the north-central U.S. where an additional 3 to 8 inches of snow was forecast Sunday night.
--By Paul Dailey, WGN Weather Center Meteorologist
WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center staff provide daily coverage of weather in the Chicago area.
