Only the third of 11 spring weekends to host 80°+

With the opening 18 days of May 2007 ranked 23rd warmest of the past 136 years, area temperatures are predicted to reach or top 80° for the ninth time in 2007 Saturday afternoon. The pace at which 80s have been occurring is running well ahead of normal. May’s 61° average temperature is 6 degrees above the same period a year ago. Yet, of the 11 meteorological spring weekends on the books, this becomes only the third to log an 80° high.
Despite the past week’s thundery rains, Chicago’s official May rain tally of 0.65” at O’Hare is only one-third of the long-term average—low enough to make this the 19th driest May here since 1871. Of nine May 1-18 periods we’ve examined with comparably limited rainfall, six of them were followed by summer seasons with below-normal rainfall.
Computer precipitation estimates suggest that the Chicago area’s potential total rainfall into the opening two days of June may range from 0.94” to 2.24”.
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist