Spirits soar here each year with the arrival of the first really warm days which follow the seemingly endless chill of a long Chicago winter. The warmth of recent days has distinguished itself as being especially unusual. Of the 11,244 days with 70°-plus highs since weather observations began in 1929 at Midway Airport, only 84 have occurred any earlier. That’s less than 1 percent! Not only have each of the city’s 79° official highs the past two days established new records, Chicagoans haven’t been treated to readings as warm this early in the season since an 81° high on March 12, 1990.
Warmth wasn’t confined to Chicago: Records fell across sections of 16 states Monday—among them 72° at Duluth, Minn.; 63° at Marquette and 73° at Alpena, Mich.—noteworthy because of the proximity to 40° lake waters.
East winds shift off 43° Lake Michigan waters Tuesday, cooling and saturating warm, moist air here, producing lake fog and helping generate sporadic thunderstorms.
--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.
