Cold weather is hardly a novelty here in April. But, the 35° plunge in high temperatures from Tuesday’s 70° to Wednesday’s 35° is the biggest of the past three decades to hit the Chicago area in April. It ranks among the five most impressive “day to next” April high temperature retreats to occur since weather records began here in 1871.
The cold air’s invasion of the Upper Midwest helped ignite a blizzard which paralyzed sections of northern Minnesota, far northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula late Tuesday and Wednesday, producing record snowfall. By late Wednesday, 21.7” had accumulated at Marquette, Mich.—the city’s third biggest April snow tally since official records began there in 1960. Rockland, in Michigan’s U.P., reported 25” by nightfall-and snow was still falling. The 12.7” total at Duluth, Minn. was that city’s heaviest April snow since 1870.
--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.
